Hollywood actors set the stage for strike action after contract negotiations fail

LOS ANGELES — Thousands of Hollywood actors could soon head to the picket lines after their labor union and a trade group representing the industry's leading film and television studios failed to reach a deal on a new contract.

The national board of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, or SAG-AFTRA, plans to vote Thursday morning on whether to go on strike. The guild will then hold a news conference at 3 p.m. ET.

“SAG-AFTRA’s Television/Theatrical/Streaming contracts have expired without a successor agreement,” the union said in a statement early Thursday, shortly after the previous contract expired at 11:59 p.m. PT (2:59 a.m. ET), capping days of high-stakes negotiations and suspense.

The guild’s members, rattled by the economics of the streaming era and the rise of unregulated digital technologies, seek higher base compensation and safeguards around the use of artificial intelligence, among other demands. Hollywood's writers are already striking over similar issues.

SAG-AFTRA said that, after more than four weeks of bargaining, the trade association that represents major companies such as Disney, Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery “remains unwilling to offer a fair deal on the key issues that are essential" to its members.

SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher, who starred on the sitcom “The Nanny,” said in a statement her guild “negotiated in good faith,” but “the AMPTP’s responses to the union’s most important proposals have been insulting and disrespectful of our massive contributions to this industry.”

The group representing the studios said it was “deeply disappointed” by the failure to reach a deal.

“This is the Union’s choice, not ours. In doing so, it has dismissed our offer of historic pay and residual increases, substantially higher caps on pension and health contributions, audition protections, shortened series option periods, a groundbreaking AI proposal that protects actors’ digital likenesses, and more,” the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers said in a statement.

“Rather than continuing to negotiate, SAG-AFTRA has put us on a course that will deepen the financial hardship for thousands who depend on the industry for their livelihoods,” it added.

The strike would be limited to film and television productions. The walkout would not involve SAG-AFTRA members who work in the news business, such as certain broadcast hosts and announcers.

The announcement comes more than two months after the Writers Guild of America, a union that represents film and television scribes, started striking amid its own dispute with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. (The group represents Comcast, the corporation that owns NBCUniversal; some employees of the NBCUniversal News Group are represented by the WGA.)

The writers walkout halted most television production, delayed the filming of some high-profile movies and sent late-night talk shows into reruns. The actors strike would likely force other sets to go dark.

SAG-AFTRA members authorized a strike June 5 by an overwhelming margin: 97.91% of the almost 65,000 members who cast votes. The guild began negotiating with the top studios and streaming services two days later.

The union’s existing contract with the major studios originally expired at 11:59 p.m. PT June 30, but both sides agreed to continue negotiations and extended the talks until July 12.

SAG-AFTRA has argued that performers have been undermined by the new economics of streaming entertainment and threatened by emerging technologies.

The guild is seeking increased base compensation for performers, which union leaders say has declined as streaming-first studios pivot away from paying out residuals to talent and inflation takes its toll on the economy in general.

The union’s actors are also alarmed by the threat posed by the unrelated use of AI (such as tools that can make digital replacements for recognizable stars) and the cost of “self-taped auditions” — videos that used to be paid for by casting departments and production offices.

In recent weeks, some in the entertainment business worried that all three major Hollywood guilds — SAG-AFTRA, WGA and the Directors Guild of America, or DGA — would walk off the job simultaneously.

But that will not be the case since the Directors Guild announced in early June it had reached a “truly historic” tentative agreement with the studios.