(Los Angeles) Leaders of a Hollywood actors union voted on Thursday to join screenwriters in the first joint strike in more than six decades, halting production in the entertainment industry after talks broke down for a new deal with studios and streaming services.
Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, chief executive of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Radio and Television Artists (SAG-AFTRA), told a press conference that union leaders had decided to put the work stoppage in motion. hours after their contract expired and talks broke down with the Alliance of Motion Picture and television producers representing employers such as Disney, Netflix, Amazon and others.
“A strike is an instrument of last resort,” he said. Union leaders told a news conference they had voted unanimously for a strike to begin at midnight. Outside the Netflix offices in Hollywood, striking screenwriters chanted “Pay your actors! immediately after the strike was announced.
PHOTO CHRIS PIZZELLO, CHRIS PIZZELLO/INVISION/AP
Duncan Crabtree-Ireland and Fran Drescher
It’s the first strike by film and TV actors since 1980. And it’s the first time two major Hollywood unions have gone on strike at the same time since 1960, when Ronald Reagan was the actors’ guild president.
“Employers make Wall Street and greed their priority and they forget about the essential contributors who run the machine,” said the former star of The Nanny and SAG-AFTRA President, Fran Drescher, in an impassioned speech that drew applause from union leaders in the room. ” It’s disgusting. Shame on them. They stand on the wrong side of history. »
Avec l’imminence d’une grève, la première du film de Christopher Nolan Oppenheimer à Londres a été avancée d’une heure afin que la distribution puisse fouler le tapis rouge avant l’annonce du conseil d’administration de la SAG.
La grève imminente a également jeté une ombre sur la 75e cérémonie des prix Emmy, dont les nominations ont été annoncées un jour plus tôt.
Le chef de la direction de Disney, Bob Iger, a averti jeudi qu’une grève des acteurs aurait un « effet très néfaste sur l’ensemble du secteur ».
« C’est le pire moment au monde pour ajouter à cette perturbation, a déclaré M. Iger lors d’une apparition sur CNBC. Il y a des attentes de la part de [SAG-AFTRA et WGA] which are simply not realistic. »
A nearly two-week extension of the contract and negotiations only heightened the hostility between the two groups. Mr Drescher said the extension made us “feel like we were duped, like maybe it was just to let the studios promote their summer movies for another 12 days”.
Before talks began on June 7, the 65,000 cast members who spoke voted overwhelmingly for a strike mandate, as the Writers Guild of America did when their agreement expired more than two years ago. month.
As the original deadline approached in late June, more than 1,000 union members, including Meryl Streep, Jennifer Lawrence and Bob Odenkirk, added their names to a letter signaling to leaders their willingness to strike if necessary.
SAG-AFTRA represents more than 160,000 film actors, television journalists, announcers, entertainers and stunt performers. The walkout only affects the 65,000 actors in the television and film production union, who voted overwhelmingly to allow their leaders to go on strike before talks begin on June 7. The Broadway cast said in a statement that they stand “in solidarity” with SAG-AFTRA workers.
The 11,500 members of the Writers Guild of America have been on strike since their own talks broke down and their contract expired on May 2. No sign of a solution is on the horizon, no negotiations even being planned.
Negotiating issues include the unregulated use of artificial intelligence and the effects on residual compensation caused by the video-on-demand ecosystem that has emerged in recent years.