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Its strike season in Hollywood.
There are so many groups of people who fall under SAG-AFTRA.
Its a union that was formed by the merger of SAG and AFTRA in 2012.
Those predecessor unions go back to the 1930s.
The union also represents singers and radio and television newscasters, but those groups are not involved in this.
The union has various contracts, and the TV theatrical master agreements expired a day ago.
And the union is now on strike over it.
If youre an actor who only works in commercials, for example, the commercials contract is not struck.
It doesnt expire for a year or two.
So well still see Flo from Progressive.Well still see Flo from Progressive.
Thank God.Exactly, thank God for that.
It was against the advertising administration.
The last time we had an actual strike against Hollywood was 1980, 43 years ago.
And the last time, finally, that we had dual strikes in Hollywood was 1960.
Thats what were looking at here in terms of precedent.
All Hollywood strikes have been about technological change.
This strike is about five major issues: residuals, inflation, streaming, AI, and self-tape auditions.
With all the changes due to technology, was the strike an inevitability?Well, no.
There had been a 12-year fight over whether movies played on TV would generate residuals.
In some ways, the largest victory that labor in Hollywood ever won was achieved with a dual strike.
The IATSE and Teamsters contracts are up next year.
Its also viewed as existential in terms of where the business is at.
The box office is down versus 2019 and is never gonna recover.
The linear-television broadcast and cable is dying and audiences are shrinking.
So its existential for the companies in their view, and its existential for labor.
Thats creating two butting heads that suggests that it is going to be a long time before its resolved.
How much does publicity matter?It matters a lot.
Can you give me a rundown of the list of demands?The first is basic wage increases.
The actors want wage increases that reflect the levels of inflation for the last two, three years.
The studios are not offering that.
The writers are actually not looking for an inflationary adjustment.
Their last ask was 6 percent, and the directors got 5 percent.
Secondly, SAG wants a success metric for residuals for streaming residuals.
Both SAG and the WGA are concerned with AI, but the issue works somewhat differently.
The writers dont want AI to replace them.
The actors may be comfortable with some replacement as long as theyre compensated for it.
But if theyre going to train AI on an actors performance, they want to get paid for that.
And then if the AI version gets deployed, they wanna get paid for that.
When the WGA strike began, the AI issue wasnt at the forefront, though it was there.
But its been getting pushed to the forefront as the strike has gone on.
Why is that?Were in a hype cycle over AI.
Silicon Valley people are excited by the hype cycle, to some degree unrealistically excited.
What other issues are the actors concerned about?The fourth issue for the actors is pension and health.
The benefit plans are funded by the studios and streamers are funded by the producers, technically.
The studios are offering an increase, but a lesser increase.
And then, finally, you have self-tape auditions.
Thats not how auditions work anymore.
Youre expected to tape your own audition at home using your cell-phone camera, and then submit it.
Suddenly, youre killing hours getting it right.
A business has sprung up at $70 or so an hour helping actors create their self-tapes.
So they would just be guidelines that dont matter.Theyd be b.s.
Is that your sense around this or not?Thats bull.
When they voted for the strike authorization, first of all, the national board voted unanimously.
The national board ordinarily cant agree on the color of the sky, and it was unanimous.
Then the vote that came back was 98 percent in favor of a strike authorization.
You wont have actors doing that.
The Toronto Film Festivals coming up.
You wont have actors there.
This will translate into an economic hit at the box office.
