SAG-AFTRA Could Strike Soon as WGA Protest Continues

<div class="block">Tensions continue to escalate amid the ongoing Writer&#39;s Guild of America strike and now Hollywood actors could be joining the fray. Cheddar News senior reporter Michelle Castillo gave an update on both unions and their negotiations with Hollywood studios.</div>

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SA A negotiations are still ongoing but it's not going well and its contract expires at midnight on July 12th, meaning potentially we could see both writers and actors on the picket lines. So yesterday, Sag a sent out a note to members saying the union would be asking for volunteers to help strike efforts in Los Angeles, New York and other locations. According to variety, the message specifically asked the unions 160,000 members for a bill to pick it outside studio gates New York offices and other spots. Now sa A contract initially expired on June 30th, but it was extended until July 12 for ongoing negotiations. This isn't far from the WG A strike strategy. Those writers have been on strike since May 2nd. After negotiations, negotiations failed between it and the alliance and motion picture and television producers as well. So at the center of the debates are these residual rights for streaming content. People who work on television shows get paid each time the episode airs. However, when you rewatch content on streaming, it's not usually counted in the same way, which means workers aren't getting paid. If you binge watch something more than once. Now. The other big issue that we're seeing is the use of artificial intelligence. While the WG A and S A said they welcome the use of A I, they want security that their roles won't be replaced by technology. So for example, A is concerned about the use of A I to replicate the likeness or voice of actors. Yeah. And if I had to guess, I actually really do believe that the actors will strike based off of everything I've heard so far. So what about the writers strike? Does that show any signs of resolving itself? Well, you know, Baker, nothing yet on that front either. Although when I previously spoke to the WG A, it had mentioned that it expected the A MP TP negotiations were going to go first with the Directors Guild of America and then SA A. So the DG A did recently sign it three year contract and we're still waiting on the SA A negotiations, productions are allowed to continue filming, but only with scripts that were made before the strike and rewrites are not allowed. We've also seen many actors and crew who are not members of the WG A join the picket lines and support, but it's definitely causing tension. So take this example per the Hall reporter, show runner Ryan Murphy, who is best known for Glee and American horror story, sent a letter via his lawyers over to the WG A over comments made by former East Coast strike captain Warren Light. Now Light had tweeted that American horror story crew had been threatened to be quote blackballed in Murphy land if they didn't cross the picket line. So Murphy has denied those claims and Light has walked them back and resigned from positions at the WG as well. All right. Uh Michelle Castillo, thank you so much for that update on that.