THE BIG NEWS SAG-AFTRA Actors Join Striking Writers in Historic Walkout

[Omaha Steve]

https://am-quickie.ghost.io/actors-on-strike/

For the first time in 63 years, actors and writers are striking together after SAG-AFTRA's board unanimously authorized a walkout, according to the LA Times. The union's 160,000 members started their strike at midnight with their picket to start today, joining the already 11,500 Writers' Guild of America workers already on strike.

The sticking points for the actors and the studios are better pay and residuals for streaming services, and protections from AI. The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) has requested a federal mediator for the dispute.

The AMPTP incensed workers from both unions when describing their strategy to "bleed out" the writers, per Deadline:

“The endgame is to allow things to drag on until union members start losing their apartments and losing their houses,” a studio executive told Deadline. Acknowledging the cold-as-ice approach, several other sources reiterated the statement. One insider called it “a cruel but necessary evil.”

So, the studio executives are horrible people that deserve their commupance, and that's what SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher, yes that Fran Drescher, plans to deliver, per the LA Times:

“What is happening to us is happening to all fields of labor,” ... Drescher said during a fiery speech at the union’s headquarters. “I’m shocked by the way the people we have been in business with are treating us. It is disgusting. Shame on them.”

Writers and actors have used the opportunity to build solidarity with each other, as well as the broader labor movement, according to Mike Elk at the Payday Report. Ben Stiller, Boots Riley, and others created The Union Solidarity Coalition whose goal is to begin "a larger, urgent movement of solidarity between all of the industry unions, and also our coworkers who aren't part of a union." Amen to that!