2023-11-09 22:43:22
by Massimo Gaggi
Total benefits of a billion dollars and more health care
NEW YORK – After 118 days of strike, the 160 thousand actors represented by the SAG-AFTRA union have reached an agreement with the producers of films and television shows. Previously, at the end of September, the 11,500 screenwriters had also signed the new contract at the end of a strike that lasted 148 days. And even before that, the production companies had signed the agreement with the directors. After six months of paralysis, Hollywood is back to work.
The studios of television networks and film productions which have also had to postpone major films – Paramount will launch the latest Mission Impossible with a long delay while Disney’s new Snow White is postponed to 2025 – were reopened yesterday. Making up for lost time in the toughest industrial dispute ever experienced by the world of entertainment will not be easy.
The last contemporary strike of screenwriters and actors dates back to 1960, when the head of the actors’ union was a certain Ronald Reagan, not yet seduced by politics, and Marilyn Monroe was the star of famous films. The long stop cost the two million workers who revolve around the world of entertainment dearly: make-up artists, costume designers, set designers, drivers and all the staff of the film and TV studios, plus their related industries. The strike is estimated to have cost the California economy $6.5 billion in lost income produced.
Very tough dispute not only for the salary demands but also for the claim of a part of the profits of the new video streaming services and for the fear that producers will one day use the technologies, in tumultuous evolution, of generative artificial intelligence to replace actors and screenwriters or to alter their work without permission (and compensation). But when on September 27 the writers signed a contract deemed very convenient, the path seemed clear for the actors too.
SAG-AFTRA, however, continued to negotiate toughly. At the beginning of October, the actors most linked to the union – George Clooney, Ben Affleck and Emma Stone – intervened to urge the signing of an agreement, so as not to skip the production of an entire season.
After various interruptions, the final phase of negotiations began on October 24: on one side the four «horsemen of the Apocalypse» of the studios: Ted Sarandos of Netflix, David Zaslav of Warner Bros, Bob Iger of Disney and Donna Langley of NBC Universal ; on the other 17 trade unionists. The conclusion was Wednesday night: the contents of the agreement have not yet been disclosed in detail, pending submission to the workers’ meetings. But SAG-AFTRA has leaked that the contract provides overall benefits for the actors amounting to a billion dollars. In addition to higher minimum wage increases than those granted to screenwriters, actors have obtained improved healthcare and a guarantee that AI will not be used to create digital replicas of them without consent (and related remuneration). They will also be paid for streaming television but will not get a percentage of the profits as they asked for.
The agreement, approved unanimously by all trade unionists, will now have to be voted on by the base. Judging by what happened with the screenwriters, ratification should come without problems.
The union claims victory, but industry analysts warn that such a costly agreement for productions will accelerate the trend, already underway before the start of the dispute, towards a drastic reduction in television series, while films regain more space. The serial bubble burst above all under pressure from Wall Street which wants to make television streaming profitable, which has quickly become a global phenomenon but disappointing for investors: productions that are unprofitable or even loss-making.
The expensive union agreement will be used by producers to justify further cuts. It is already happening with many screenwriters: they have obtained better treatment but now they are told by their employers that their contracts will not be renewed when they expire due to the need to contain costs.
November 9, 2023 (modified November 9, 2023 | 9.42pm)
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