Breaking: SAG-AFTRA Neg Committee Approves Agreement With Studios
The strike appears to be over.
The SAG-AFTRA TV/Theatrical Committee has unanimously approved a new agreement with AMPTP, which represents the bulk of Hollywood’s studios. The agreement was reached in a vote on Wednesday, SAG-AFTRA announced. The strike will end at 12:01 am Thursday.
The final vote was taken Wednesday after what is reported to have been an at-times contentious discussion over the last proposal from AMPTP.
The union said the National Board is set to meet and approve the deal on Friday. But I am hearing that the Board may already be in the process of taking a vote.
The procedure to end the strike is relatively straight-forward in theory. The negotiating committee reaches a deal with AMPTP, which the national board then has to approve. Once that happens, the deal is sent to SAG-AFTRA membership for their approval.
Traditionally, the vast majority of the membership votes yes. In large part because the deal isn’t reached until union negotiators and the national board believe the deal should be approved and is the best that is possible to obtain at that time.
This time around, the pathway to a “yes” isn’t quite so clear-cut.
Terms of the agreement have yet to be shared with union members and some actors have already voiced concerns over some of the outstanding AI issues, including guidelines over consent for digital capture and the so-called “zombie clause.”
In fact, several sources have told me that concerns over the agreement negotiated over the last week led to the leak of details to The Hollywood Reporter, which then sparked further discussions with studios earlier this week in hopes of clarifying some of the contract terms.
”I trust the neg committee completely,” one mid-level actor just messaged me. “But we haven’t seen the details and I’m reserving judgement until I do.”
One streamer executive just told me he was confident the union membership would approve the deal. “Neither side is going to be completely happy. But I do think it’s a fair deal and I hope the actors see it that way.”
I’ll send a regular newsletter out in a few hours with hopefully some more details.