SAG-AFTRA and Studios reached a tentative agreement that will end the longest actors strike against the film and TV studios in Hollywood history. In an announcement Wednesday, the union said the 118-day strike would officially over as of 12:01 a.m. PT on Thursday, November 9
The union’s negotiating committee approved the deal on an unanimous vote. The agreement next goes to the SAG-AFTRA national board for approval on Friday.
SAG-AFTRA’s negotiating committee dedicated their 12 hours time on Sunday crafting their responses. On Monday, the union said that there remained differences on “several key items.” The AMPTP modified its AI language in a meeting on Monday night, leading to a 10-hour SAG-AFTRA committee meeting on Tuesday.
The deal will see the first-ever protections for actors against artificial intelligence and a historic pay increase. The deal will see most minimums increase by 7% — two percent above the increases received by the Writers Guild of America and the Directors Guild of America. The union is expected to hold celebrations gatherings around the country.
The deal also includes a “streaming participation bonus,” according to an email sent to SAG-AFTRA members, as well as increases in pension and health contributions. The union said the contract is worth more than $1 billion in total.
“We have arrived at a contract that will enable SAG-AFTRA members from every category to build sustainable careers,” the union said in the email. The full details are expected to be released Friday, after the national board vote.
Sean Astin, another committee member, said it was gratifying to be able to tell a Zoom meeting full of strike captains that “their sacrifice worked.”
The AMPTP issued a statement Wednesday saying that the contract “represents a new paradigm.”
Negotiations are typically left to the staff of the AMPTP, But four CEOs — Donna Langley of NBCUniversal, Ted Sarandos of Netflix, David Zaslav of Warner Bros. Discovery and Iger of Disney — have taken a hands-on role over the last six weeks.
The CEOs met first with the leadership of the Writers Guild of America to hammer out that agreement in late September, and then met numerous times with Fran Drescher, the president of SAG-AFTRA, and Crabtree-Ireland in an effort to end the crippling strike.
Most TV and film production has been shut down since the writers went on strike six months ago. The actors union joined them on the picket lines in mid-July, shutting down all but a small number of indie film productions.