SAG-AFTRA and the Alliance of Motion Pictures reached a tentative agreement Wednesday night, which put an end to the union’s 118-day strike.
So, what did the actors get? SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher broke it down for KNX News’ Charles Feldman.
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“Well, first of all, we got a billion-plus dollar deal, which has broken all records. We got 11% for our lowest earning members who are background minimum increase in the first year. We got consent for all A.I., which never happened before,” she said. “We got a whole new stream of revenue that didn't exist on a streaming platform for our members. We got some new language for the auditioning and interview process with self-tapes and we're gonna keep working on that because there's more to refine.”
Drescher added that SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP will meet two times a year “to keep our finger on the pulse of what is happening with A.I.”
“It's just really incredible how much we have gotten,” she continued. “The caps were raised. The contributions that go into our health and pension also got exponentially raised.”
When it came to negotiating streaming service revenue shares, Drescher said she and the team had to realize they needed a “means to an end.”
“What happened was I had recognized that there was an impasse between the contract that we were working from, that had been originally forged in 1960, and this new platform," she said. "The problem was in how people can possibly continue to earn a living when in the vacuum of this streaming platform form -where you don't have syndication and you don't get the kind of residuals that you're used to - that sustain you and also make you eligible for your benefits.
So that was the problem. I identified that. “
When asked if she believed the strike was prolonged due to some things she'd said about the AMPTP, she said no.
“I think what it did was wake them up to the fact that they are dealing with the leadership that they did not expect and that they needed to recalibrate that,” she said. “They needed to rethink their strategy. They needed to listen and play their hands a little smarter and lean into us a little farther because this was not gonna go away. We were not going to be intimidated.”
The SAG-AFTRA Board will meet on Friday to vote on the new contract.
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