Strike over: SAG-AFTRA reaches tentative agreement with studios

Negotiators with SAG-AFTRA on Wednesday reached a tentative agreement with studios that will end the longest actors strike against the television and film industries in Hollywood’s history.

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In an announcement, the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists union said the strike would officially end Thursday at 12:01 a.m. PST, Variety reported.

“In a unanimous vote this afternoon, The SAG-AFTRA TV/Theatrical Committee approved a tentative agreement with the AMPTP bringing an end to the 118-day strike,” the union said in a statement. “The strike officially ends at 12:01 a.m. on Thursday, November 9.”

The agreement must be ratified by the union’s board and members, the Los Angeles Times reported. The deal will go to the national board for approval on Friday, according to Variety.

The tentative contract would raise minimum pay for members, increase residuals for shows streamed online and bolster contributions to SAG-AFTRA’s health and pension plans, according to the newspaper.

Most of the minimum pay will increase by 7%, Variety reported. That is 2% higher than the increases received by the Writers Guild of America and the Directors Guild of America.

The deal also includes new rules for the use of artificial intelligence, the Times reported.

The settlement between the actors and studios comes less than a month after Writers Guild members ratified a new deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, according to Deadline. That strike ended on Sept. 26, according to The Associated Press.

It also comes after a tense week of negotiations.

On Friday, studios presented what they termed their “last best and final” offer, the Times reported. Both sides met on Saturday to examine the proposal.

The SAG-AFTRA work stoppage began on July 14 when more than 60,000 members of the union walked out, Variety reported. Negotiations resumed on Oct. 2, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Representatives for the studios walked out nine days later after SAG-AFTRA advanced a proposal to charge a fee per every streaming subscriber on major platforms, the entertainment news website reported.

The two sides then returned to the table on Oct. 24 and engaged in a week of tense negotiations.

Full details are expected to be released after the national board votes on Friday, Variety reported.

According to statistics from the U.S. Bureau of Labor, more than 45,000 jobs were eliminated from payrolls in the entertainment and sound recording industries since the spring of 2023, the Times reported.

The writers and actors strikes have caused an estimated $7 billion in economic damage,

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that since last spring, more than 45,000 jobs were erased from payrolls in the entertainment and sound recording industries, Todd Holmes, associate professor of entertainment media management at Cal State Northridge, told the newspaper.

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