SAG-AFTRA negotiators reached an agreement with film and broadcast studios, ending the longest strike in Hollywood history.
This Thursday, November 9, the strike launched by the SAG-AFTRA union in search of the signing of a new contract on better terms than the previous ones ended. While the agreement must be approved by the SAG-AFTRA National Council on Friday, it is only a formality. In fact, by Thursday, activities were back to normal.
The new agreement reached with the Alliance of Film and Television Producers (AMPTP), which was mostly represented by NBCUniversal’s Donna Langley, Netflix’s Ted Sarandos, Warner Bros. Discovery’s David Zaslaf, and Disney’s Bob Egger, includes the actors’ first protection against artificial intelligence and a historic pay increase. The agreement will see most of the minimum income rise by 7 percent, 2 percent higher than the increases received by the American Writers Guild (screenwriters) and the Directors Guild of America (filmmakers). It also includes a “bonus for participating in broadcasting” and improvements to pensions and health contributions.
According to the union, the new contract means an improvement of $1 billion in total for its members. Kevin West, a senior member of the negotiating committee, said: “The final agreement is not perfect. Nothing, but reaching this result was an extraordinary achievement. The final vote was unanimous and that’s hard to achieve.” SAG-AFTRA said that a “structural change” has been achieved in the area of compensation that will be offered to actors through streaming platforms and that they will fight until what is not obtained in this agreement is included in the upcoming negotiations to be held in 2026 (all agreements in Hollywood for three years).
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