Actors have gone on strike in the American film metropolis of Hollywood. The strike will begin at midnight on Friday, SAG-AFTRA actor union chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland said in Los Angeles on Thursday.
This threatens to cause huge delays in the production of series and films. Union leader Fran Drescher (“The Nanny”) defended the strike. “We are the victims here,” she stressed.
The strike decision was expected after an agreement period in negotiations with the TV and film studio association AMPTP had expired without result. In the talks with the union, which also represents Netflix, Amazon, Apple and Disney, the union members also called in an arbitrator.
The union represents approximately 160,000 actors in the United States. The strike decision is another hard blow to the American entertainment industry. The screenwriters have refused to work since early May.
Actors demand better compensation
The actors demand, among other things, better compensation and regulation of the use of artificial intelligence in the industry. According to her, both the creative industries – authors and actors – are suffering from the fact that more films and series are being produced, but budgets are falling and series are often shot with fewer episodes per season.
In addition, unlike on television, reruns on streaming providers would generate lower royalties for the creatives and would be independent of viewership.
About 65,000 union members took part in a vote on June 7 and 97.9 percent were in favor of a strike. In addition, stars such as Meryl Streep, Jennifer Lawrence, Ben Stiller and Pedro Pascal publicly expressed their solidarity. The screenwriters’ strike is already having an impact on viewers, for example, many nightly shows can no longer be broadcast as usual. American media estimates that it would hardly be possible to record films and series in the event of a double strike.
Source: Krone
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