Is the SAG-AFTRA strike over?

It’s been almost four months since the SAG-AFTRA strikes began, making it the longest actors’ strike against Hollywood studios in the industry’s history. But it seems the union’s negotiators have finally agreed to a deal.

The announcement was made Wednesday, Nov. 8 confirming that the strike will be ending Thursday at 12:01 AM with the agreement being approved by unanimous vote.

The negotiations

This preliminary deal with the AMPTP represents some of the biggest media corporations in the industry including Disney and Netflix. These companies in particular have been at the center of negotiations whenever the topic of residuals came up, mostly because streaming services like Netflix often don’t always pay residuals to their actors. Paying residuals to the actors for their role in a show that is bringing in a profit seems pretty fair to me but Bob Iger called the demands “unrealistic.”

Anyways, that’s basically ancient history now because the AMPTP and SAG-AFTRA have finally worked something out. Actors are allowed to return to their natural habitat; it seems nature truly is healing. This is great news but I can’t help but think that a lot of time and effort could have been saved if the AMPTP had just been less stubborn in the first place.

Although it’s unlikely at this stage, there could still be a few bumps in the road and the agreement has only been given the OK by the SAG-AFTRA negotiating committee. It still needs to go through the SAG-AFTRA national board for approval before the full details of the deal are made public. However, both sides have spent the last few days ironing out and tweaking the agreement to the point that both the writers and the studios seem happy to move forward, so hopefully that’s the end of it.

What’s in the deal?

The agreement is said to be worth $1 billion with actors being given a pay rise and minimum wage set to increase by 7%. They will also see a “streaming participation bonus” and an increase to pension and health caps according to an update from the SAG-AFTRA website. On top of that the new deal also offers protection for actors against the use of artificial intelligence.

So that’s it, I don’t want to tempt fate but I think the cameras are finally able to start rolling again. Members of the union are set to celebrate their monumental breakthrough like it’s the end of Return of the Jedi and to be fair, I’d say they’ve earned it. Also we as an audience can all look forward to new shows, films, Comic-Con appearances and promotional tours again.