Hollywood Actors Strike, Actors Vote for Biggest Walkout in 40 Years
Hollywood Actors Strike, Actors Vote for Biggest Walkout in 40 Years
Hollywood is brought to a grinding halt as a result of two strikes. This is the most recent update.
At twelve o’clock midnight, about 160,000 people working in the film and television industries will join the strike that was initiated in May by screenwriters who walked off the job, resulting in the first industry-wide shutdown in Hollywood in 63 years.
On Thursday, just a few hours after failed contract negotiations with a collection of studios, the executives of the organisation known as SAG-AFTRA gave their blessing to go on strike. Beginning on Friday, actors will be participating in a picket line action.
“What’s happening to us is happening across all fields of labour,”
said Fran Drescher, who serves as the president of SAG-AFTRA. “We have a problem when employers make Wall Street and greed their priority and they forget about the essential contributors who make the machine run,” said one worker. “When employers make Wall Street and greed their priority, we have a problem.”
Ms. Drescher stated that the union was still eager to bargain, even later on today, but only under the condition that the studios were “willing to talk in a normal way that honours what we do.”
The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which negotiates on behalf of Hollywood companies, issued a statement at the beginning of the news conference saying that the union had “regrettably chosen a path that will lead to financial hardship for countless thousands of people who are dependent on the industry.” The statement was in response to the fact that the union had announced its intention to strike at the beginning of the news conference.
The last three-year contract terminated at 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday,
following a one-month extension from the original deadline of June 30 to permit ongoing negotiations. However, there are a number of topics on which the two camps do not agree, including compensation and the application of artificial intelligence.
The union asserts that it is attempting to safeguard its members from having their likenesses used in projects in which they did not take part and to ensure that workaday actors receive wages sufficient to support themselves. The studios have maintained that they have sought to strike a decent arrangement with the actors despite the fact that the industry has been upended by the advent of streaming services and has been facing falling viewership and reduced box office revenues. The studios have produced a list of 14 proposals that they offered the actors.
The striking actors’ demands are strikingly similar to those of the striking authors, whose own work stoppage had already brought a number of plays to a halt even before the striking actors voted to stage their first big walkout in more than 40 years.
Since 1960, when Marilyn Monroe was still appearing in films, neither actors nor screenwriters have been on strike at the same time. This is the longest stretch of time in which both groups have been absent from their jobs. More than 170,000 workers are participating in the dual strikes, which pit them against traditional studios such as Disney, Universal, Sony, and Paramount as well as newer juggernauts such as Netflix, Amazon, and Apple.
What you should know is as follows:
As a result of the ongoing strike, viewers of late-night programmes such as “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” and “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” have been deprived of new episodes for more than two months. There is a strong possibility that the autumn television schedule will be altered if the labour problems are not settled as soon as possible.
The performers staged their final significant walkout in 1980, at a time when a burgeoning industry for the rental and selling of home videos was a contentious issue. Wages, residuals (which are a form of royalty), artificial intelligence, and various other topics are at the centre of the ongoing labour dispute. Learn about the most important points here.
The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers issued a statement in which it expressed its “deep disappointment” at the decision of the union to withdraw from the negotiations. The statement added that the Alliance was “deeply disappointed” by the decision. The group declared, “This is the union’s choice, not ours,” in response to the question. Learn more about the challenges that the studios are facing by reading this article.
The striking authors, who have been walking picket lines for more than seventy days at this point, would receive additional support from the walkout staged by the actors. Their labour organisation, the Writers Guild of America, has not yet resumed bargaining with the production companies. Learn more about the writer’s strike by reading more about it.
