A group of more than 400 actors – including Oscar winners Meryl Streep, Jennifer Lawrence and Rami Malek – are urging SAG-AFTRA leaders to take a harder line as contract talks reach a critical point.
The members sent an internal letter to the union’s negotiating committee and leadership on Tuesday. They stressed that “we are prepared to strike when it comes down to it”.
“And we are concerned about the idea that SAG-AFTRA members are willing to make sacrifices that leadership is not,” they continued.
The contract expires on Friday and management has the power to call a strike on Saturday if no agreement is reached.
In the letter, members urged their negotiators to settle for nothing less than a “transformative deal.”
“This is not a time to meet halfway, and it is no exaggeration to say that the eyes of history are on all of us,” they wrote. “We ask that you push for all the changes we need and the protections we deserve, and make history by doing so. If you are unable to make it all the way there, we ask that you use the power given to you by us, the membership, and join the WGA on the picket lines. For our Union and its future, this is our moment. We hope that you will meet that moment on our behalf and will not miss it.
Fran Drescher, the union’s president, appeared in a video on Saturday with Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, the chief negotiator, saying the talks had been “extremely productive”. That seemed to indicate that a deal was imminent, although the two sides still disagree on many important issues.
The video was met with some resistance, as some members felt the leadership seemed ready to settle for too little.
Also signatories to the letter are Glenn Close, Ben Stiller, Laura Linney, Julia Louis Dreyfus, Elliot Page, Amy Poehler, Quinta Brunson, Liam Neeson, Emmy Rossum, Amy Schumer, Neil Patrick Harris, Constance Wu, Billy Eichner, Paul Walter Onder others Hauser, John Slattery and Natasha Lyonne.
SAG-AFTRA tends to have more dissenting votes than the other creative guilds, especially during contract validation votes. The union also has a tradition of divisive internal politics, although its two factions – Membership First and Unite for Strength – have joined to endorse a “unity slate” with Fran Drescher seeking another term as president and Joely Fisher is seeking another term as secretary. treasurer.
Here is the full text of the letter:
Dear SAG-AFTRA Leadership and Negotiation Committee,
Thank you for your hard work and your leadership in navigating these difficult negotiations at a truly unprecedented time. As SAG-AFTRA members, we have been impressed over the past few months with how our leadership outlined the unique stakes of the negotiations and the need for a realignment in our industry. We were pleased to see SAG-AFTRA leading the way among the guilds in identifying AI as a threat to our livelihood that needs to be addressed now, a game changer. We felt like you understood how wildly our wages and remnants have been undermined, how long we’re held captive between seasons. We are filled with pride to see the union come together and issue such an incredibly strong strike authorization.
But solidarity requires honesty, and we must make our determination clear. A strike brings so many incredible hardships, and no one wants it. But we are prepared to strike when it comes down to it. And we are concerned about the idea that SAG-AFTRA members are willing to make sacrifices that leadership is not. We hope you heard the message from us. This is an unprecedented tipping point in our industry, and what might be considered a good deal in other years just isn’t enough. We feel that our wages, our craft, our creative freedom and the strength of our union have all been undermined in the past decade. We need to reverse those trajectories. With inflation and continued growth in streaming, we need a seismic realignment of our minimum wage and new media residues, our exclusivity agreements and other terms. We also think it’s imperative that the deal restores the dignity of the casting process by regulating how self-adhesive tapes are used. This is a huge problem for working class actors. And especially on artificial intelligence, we don’t believe that SAG-AFTRA members can afford to make a profit halfway ahead of more to come three years from now, and we think it’s absolutely vital that these negotiations not only protect our likenesses, but make sure we are well compensated when any of our work is used to train AI. We want you to know that we prefer to strike rather than compromise on these fundamentals, and we believe that if we settle for a less drastic deal, the future of our union and our profession will be undermined, and SAG-AFTRA will enter the next negotiation with drastically reduced leverage.
This is not a time to meet halfway, and it is no exaggeration to say that the eyes of history are upon us all. We ask that you push for all the changes we need and the protections we deserve, and make history by doing so. If you are unable to make it all the way there, we ask that you use the power given to you by us, the membership, and join the WGA on the picket lines. For our Union and its future, this is our moment. We hope that you will meet and not miss that moment on our behalf.