The leadership of the American Actors, Television and Radio Artists union decided to go on strike late Thursday night. It did so after union negotiators failed to reach an agreement with the film studios on the new wording of the collective agreement.
According to American media, the move means the practical paralysis of Hollywood. The actors join the scriptwriters who have been on strike for more than two months over disputes over pay and working conditions.
The last time the US experienced this double strike was in 1960. “About 160,000 TV and film actors go on strike at midnight, triggering the first industry-wide shutdown in Hollywood in 63 years,” summarizes The New York Times. The actors are on strike first since 2000, adds the AP agency.
Screen Actors Guild President Fran Drescher announces an actors strike and rips the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers:
“They plead poverty … when giving hundreds of millions of dollars to their CEOs … Shame on them. They stand on the wrong side of history.” pic.twitter.com/X3gcrYmUq6
— The Recount (@therecount) July 13, 2023
Actors and Broadcasters Union director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland announced Thursday that management had voted to begin the strike hours after the current contract expired and negotiations with studio representatives failed. According to him, the decision was unanimous. “A strike is a tool of last resort,” Crabtree-Ireland said.
“We demand respect. You cannot exist without us,” the cast’s chief negotiator, Fran Drescher, told the producers. Actors Cillian Murphy and Emily Blunt walked out of the London premiere of Oppenheimer on Thursday in response to the start of the strike. Likewise, the strike was immediately supported by the actresses Margot Robbie and Meryl Streep or the star Dwayne Johnson known as The Rock, calculates British BBC.
Negotiators had previously advised union members to go on strike to join screenwriters who have been seeking higher wages, better insurance conditions or guarantees related to artificial intelligence since May. Likewise, actors fear that their profession is threatened by the ever-evolving tools of artificial intelligence and that streaming platforms are increasingly taking a bite out of their rewards.
American screenwriters have been on strike for two months. | Photo: Reuters
“After more than four weeks of negotiations, the producers’ union, which brings together the largest studios and platforms including Amazon, Apple, Disney, Netflix, Sony, Paramount, Warner Bros. Discovery and NBCUniversal, is unwilling to offer a fair deal on the key issues that matter to you, ” the cast’s chief negotiator, Fran Drescher, told members in a quarterly statement.
The screenwriters’ strike has already forced TV stations to start broadcasting popular talk shows from the tape, and disrupted the production of series and the shooting of big-budget movies for the entire season. The addition of actors now means the temporary end of filming in all Hollywood studios. It will put the studios under more pressure, Reuters thinks.
The screenwriters’ union supported the actors’ protest for “the contract they deserve,” it said. “The last time our unions went on strike at the same time, the actors and writers won essential contractual arrangements that we still benefit from today – royalties, pensions and health care,” the writers’ union said.
Variety.com magazine he wrotethat several of the highest-ranking people in the industry took part in the crisis conference meeting on Monday – the head of the Disney television section Dana Walden and the film section Alan Bergman, the head of Warner Bros. Discovery David Zaslav and the executive co-director of Netflix Ted Sarandos.
“I am very concerned. The industry has not yet fully returned to normal after the pandemic. This is the worst possible time to go on strike,” he complains Robert Iger, the head of Disney. According to him, actors and screenwriters do not have realistic expectations.
According to the actors’ main negotiator Fran Drescher, on the other hand, the right moment has come. “If we don’t stand up now, we will suffer. The business model in the industry has changed beyond recognition in recent years, but our contracts remain the same. I can’t believe my eyes when I see how movie studios play the poor and cry about how much money they lose, while at the same time paying their CEOs hundreds of millions of dollars in bonuses. It’s disgusting. They should all be ashamed,” Fran Drescher added.
The Trade Union of Actors and Television and Radio Artists brings together about 160,000 people from actors, journalists, singers and voice actors to radio workers.
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2023-07-13 22:29:00
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