Fran Drescher on the studios’ refusal to negotiate and the 100-day SAG-AFTRA strike – gas column

Editor’s note: On the 100th^e On the day of the SAG-AFTRA strike, the 160,000-member guild and studios are silent again and no new negotiations are planned. The writers are back at work, but because there is no acting contract, production in Hollywood is at a standstill. Fran Drescher, chairman of SAG-AFTRA, argues that this does not have to be the case, that economic suffering must be resolved. But first, she writes, the studios must return to the negotiating table and stop playing games with the industry and people’s livelihoods.

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The members of SAG-AFTRA are engaged in a David vs. Goliath battle, a just battle for the future of our profession and our industry.

The 10 year grace period we gave AMPTP companies to build their streaming platforms at the expense of fair compensation for my members has come to an abrupt end.

We started negotiations in June with the expectation that we could reach a fair agreement. We even granted a 12-day extension to the negotiations to explore all options for concluding a contract, but without success. When a strike became an absolute necessity, the companies refused to continue negotiations and walked out in mid-July.

When negotiations resumed on October 2nd, the CEOs offered us exactly two full and three half-day negotiation sessions to resolve a contract full of inequities in streaming video-on-demand (SVOD), AI and other key issues that were the minimum salary . Increases that keep pace with inflation and outdated limits on pension and healthcare contributions are just a few key concerns. We handed over a big package and they left again on October 11th.

As we reach the 100th day of this strike, we are more determined than ever to reach a landmark contract that is fair and just because our livelihoods are at stake.

SAG-AFTRA members have been systematically squeezed out of the ability to make a living due to a streaming model that cuts the number of episodes in a season by two-thirds and the number of seasons by two-thirds, while eliminating syndication altogether. Tail.

This dramatic shortage of jobs, coupled with inadequate pay, has had a devastating impact on the working and working actors who bring films and television shows to life. It affected their ability to pay their rent, put food on the table and carry clothes on their children’s backs.

The pride of being a working actor who can make a living as a professional has been eroded, a fading memory of the good old days of linear television.

I am by no means an idiot. I even taught my 90-year-old parents to FaceTime, text and Google, but the effects of the introduction and dramatic expansion of streaming technology are widespread and damaging.

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Over the past decade, streaming has cannibalized many of the entertainment industry’s more traditional forms of exhibition, and it’s clear that it’s here to stay. The fact is: Streaming brings these companies’ revenue into the double-digit billion range, but the economic success does not rest with the players.

where is the money

Obviously, this does not appear in the old residual compensation structure for linear television or in the current residual compensation for streaming. It’s in the pockets of CEOs and on company balance sheets.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t surprise me at all that our employers, stunned by the enormous amounts of investor money being poured into their companies, failed to consider the artist’s ability to make money from SVOD while negotiating their own rich deals.

This disdain for working people doesn’t just exist in the entertainment industry. It is a sad story of greed as old as the mountains.

So where do we go from here?

During our most recent round of negotiations, we were dismayed by AMPTP’s strategy of not negotiating, even though script orders and the number of pre-production crews have started to increase now that the WGA strike has been resolved.

What could they think?

Then the ugliness began to rear its ugly head, with a blatant propaganda attempt to discredit the union leadership and divide our solidarity while the companies watched their hired PR firm do their dirty work.

Old, tired, typical AMPTP tactic.

What they don’t realize is that my members are living in the dystopia that streaming services have created for those who make a living in the entertainment industry. These working actors don’t fly in private jets or sail on private yachts. On the contrary, 86% of our 160,000 members cannot meet the $26,474 threshold to even be eligible for health benefits.

This is not sustainable.

We need to increase employer contributions to health care and pension funds. We need to ensure that our lowest paid members get a minimum wage increase that keeps pace with inflation. We must have informed consent and compensation for the use of AI. And we need to agree on fair compensation for moving from a sector dominated by linear TV to one dominated by streaming.

We need to increase employer contributions to health care and pension funds. We need to ensure that our lowest paid members get a minimum wage increase that keeps pace with inflation. We must have informed consent and compensation for the use of AI. And we need to agree on fair compensation for moving from a sector dominated by linear TV to one dominated by streaming.

It is the AMPTP and the companies it represents that are extending this strike.

It can only end if the parties reach an agreement and for that the AMPTP must return to negotiations. With the survival of the acting profession at stake, it would be irrational to settle for anything less than a fair compensation structure and safety net for AI.

For the sake of everyone who makes a living in this industry, we hope the strike is resolved quickly, but make no mistake, we will fight to the end.

We simply have no choice.