SAG-AFTRA’s national board of directors on Friday approved a tentative contract negotiated with the major studios earlier this week to end the nearly four-month-long actors’ strike.
The approval, which was expected, clears the way for the contract to be voted on by members before it takes effect. The vote among board members was 86% in favor of the three-year film and TV contract, the union said.
The union ended the strike on Thursday after 118 days, saying it had secured a historic agreement to improve pay and protections for its 160,000 members.
The tentative contract, the details of which have not yet been made public, is expected to address the core issues that drove actors to the picket lines in July, including higher minimum pay, increased residual payments for streaming shows and improved health benefits, as well as protections related to self-taped auditions and the use of artificial intelligence in filmmaking.
The guild’s negotiating committee said the contract would “enable SAG-AFTRA members from every category to build sustainable careers” and that “thousands of performers now and into the future will benefit from this work.”
After the guild’s negotiating committee reached the deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents the major studios and streamers, the contract was passed to SAG-AFTRA’s national board. The board reviewed the deal on Friday before voting to approve it.
The Writers Guild of America ended its strike, which began in early May, last month.
Moody’s Investors Service on Friday estimated the new contracts will cost the studios an additional $600 million a year in costs for production.
“We expect studios will trim their use of A-list talent, greenlight less filming on location and instead use more soundstages and green-screens, and that they will trim postproduction spending and special effects,” wrote Neil Begley, Moody’s senior vice president, in the report.
This is a developing story.
Times Staff Writer Meg James contributed to this report
