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The board of Hollywood’s actors union asked members late last week to give negotiators the power to call a strike, a move that would add new pressure to major studios already facing a writers’ strike.
The SAG-AFTRA actors union set a June 5 deadline for its 160,000 members to cast ballots in a strike authorisation vote.
If approved, the measure would allow union leaders to call a work stoppage if they cannot reach a new contract agreement with major Hollywood studios.
The writers’ strike has disrupted production of late-night shows and some TV series, but some filming is continuing. A strike by actors would lead to a broader shutdown across the industry.
Roughly 11,500 members of the Writers Guild of America went on strike on May 2 after the union failed to reach a deal with Walt Disney Co., Netflix Inc. and other media companies for higher pay and safeguards around the use of artificial intelligence in the streaming TV era.
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The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) said it offered “generous” increases in compensation.
For Hollywood actors, pay and AI also are on the list of concerns.
“Earning a living as a professional performer has become increasingly difficult, with both inflation and the streaming ecosystem undercutting compensation,” SAG-AFTRA said in a statement on its website.
Negotiations between SAG-AFTRA and the studios are scheduled to start on June 7. The actors’ current labour contract expires June 30.
“The prospect of a strike is not a first option, but a last resort,” SAG-AFTRA President and ‘The Nanny’ actor Fran Drescher said. “As my dad always says, ‘Better to have and not need than to need and not have!’” A representative for the AMPTP did not immediately respond to a request for comment.