Keeping up with the screenwriters’ strike

It has been 109 days on the picket lines, and SAG-AFRTA is still going strong. 

Halloween costumes were making headlines as SAG-AFRTA asked its members to choose more general costumes this holiday rather than specific characters. The guild is asking this in order to avoid promoting struck work.

“Let’s use our collective power to send a loud and clear message to our struck employers that we will not promote their content without a fair contract,” said the union on their website Oct. 19.

In another update, George Clooney and a group of other A-list actors met with the heads of SAG-AFTRA with a proposal to take caps off union dues for high-earning members earlier this month.

This is in order to bridge the gap between what SAG-AFTRA is seeking from the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) and what the AMPTP is willing to give. 

Fran Drescher, president of SAG-AFTRA was thankful for the proposal but explained why it legally wouldn’t work. 

“We are a federally regulated labor union and the only contributions that can go into our pension and health funds must be from the employer,” said Drescher in an Instagram reel. “So what we are fighting for in terms of benefits has to remain in this contract.”

Talks between SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP are currently stalled on the topic of charging streaming services 57 cents per subscriber. This would allow funds to be available for actors who worked on those streaming platforms. 

Unfortunately, the AMPTP, whose CEO’s annual salary average is roughly $40 million, states that this proposal would create, “untenable economic burden.”