Another Rerun?
It doesn’t seem that long ago.
It all began one early fall morning on a street corner in Hollywood, our camera’s across the street from Paramount Studios as writers hit the picket lines. At the time, no one could have known that 100 days, 37,000 jobs and more than 2-billion dollars later, the strike would be over. We mentioned at the time the possibility that actors may be in the same situation, now we have arrived at the time.
done
The issue seems simple, but there’s a bit of a curve ball involved. Simply put, the actors want future and new media rights and compensation, more money for actors making less than $100,000 a year and a stronger pension. Negotiations with SAG (The Screen Actors Guild) are going nowhere, but the other and smaller actors union AFTRA (American Federation of Television and Radio Artists), has signed a deal that is currently being voted on. SAG leaders are urging people to oppose the deal because they feel a better deal can be reached. Currently 44,000 men and women are members of both unions, with results of the vote expected in about 7 days.
Meantime, the SAG contract expires tonight and leaders say they haven’t even called for a strike vote yet. Studio heads at this point say television production will go on and movies are wrapping up. Will new ones begin to shoot?
How long will shows shoot without a contract? Can the two unions work together? All these questions and many others are yet to be answered. Some actors are already taking sides, while others like George Clooney are calling for unity.
So today, we sit in Culver City. Sony Studios seems busy as normal, but the looming possibility of a strike has everyone passing by asking us what we think will happen and others worry about another stoppage and more lost wages…within the industry and many jobs indirectly supported on the outside.