Monsurat
The Screen Actors Guild- American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) which represents over 160,000 performers, have joined the strike by screenwriters when they stopped work at midnight in Los Angeles, bringing a cessation to US film and TV productions.
The move is the industry’s first joint action and biggest shutdown in over 60 years. Writers and Actors are demanding job protections against Artificial Intelligence (AI) as well as a fairer split of profits and better working conditions.
The unions, both actors and screenwriters, seek protection on their jobs that AI will not be used to supersede their roles. The strike will put a stop or delay to popular series, and future blockbusters.
“As you know, over the past decade, your compensation has been eroded by the rise of the streaming ecosystem. Furthermore, artificial intelligence poses an existential threat to creative professions” said a statement by SAG-AFTRA.
The statement said industries have “refused to acknowledge that enormous shifts in the industry and economy have had a detrimental impact on those who perform labor for the studios.” However, The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) said they were “deeply disappointed that SAG-AFTRA has decided to walk away from negotiations.”
“This is the Union’s choice, not ours” said AMPTP. They said the strike was certainly not the outcome they hoped for as “studios cannot operate without performers that bring our TV shows and films to life.”
Picketing will begin on Friday morning outside the California headquarters of Netflix, and move on to Paramount, Warner Bros and Disney.
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