SAG-AFTRA has officially reached a tentative agreement on a new three-year contract with studios, ending the longest actors’ strike in the history of Hollywood.
On Wednesday, the SAG-AFTRA TV/Theatrical Committee approved the agreement in a unanimous vote. The strike will end at 12:01 a.m. Thursday. On the following day, the deal will go to the union’s national board for approval in full.
“Today’s tentative agreement represents a new paradigm,” the AMPTP said in a statement on Wednesday night. “It gives SAG-AFTRA the biggest contract-on-contract gains in the history of the union, including the largest increase in minimum wages in the last forty years; a brand new residual for streaming programs; extensive consent and compensation protections in the use of artificial intelligence; and sizable contract increases on items across the board. The AMPTP is pleased to have reached a tentative agreement and looks forward to the industry resuming the work of telling great stories.”
During the last few days, the two entities worked on finalizing the deal, which will see the first-ever protections for actors against AI and streaming stipulations, along with an unprecedented pay increase. While the union disclosed some of the agreement’s details, more information on the deal will come to light as time passes.
The majority of television and film production has been shut down since the writers went on strike six months ago, with the actors union joining them on the picket lines in mid-July. Overall, the six months of Hollywood strikes is estimated to have cost the Southern California economy more than $6.5 billion and 45,000 entertainment industry jobs.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said in a statement that “today’s tentative agreement is going to impact nearly every part of our economy. Now, we must lean in on local production to ensure that our entertainment industry rebounds stronger than ever and our economy is able to get back on its feet.”
Although things may be trending back to normal, union members will still have to vote to ratify an agreement, a process that is likely to take at least a week or more. But the strike has already been called off, meaning that actors can return to work on Thursday.
Prior to this strike, the longest actors’ strike against the TV and film industry lasted for 95 days in 1980—this one surpassed that mark on October 17, and lasted 118 days in total.
Welcome back, Hollywood.