SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher and national executive director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland announced the union’s strike at a press conference on July 13. (photo courtesy of SAG-AFTRA)

For the first time in 63 years, both the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and the Writers Guild of America are on strike. SAG-AFTRA joined WGA on the picket lines July 13, following a press conference led by president Fran Drescher and national executive director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, who also served as the chief negotiator.

“The AMPTP has remained steadfast in its commitment to devaluing the work of our members,” Crabtree-Ireland said.

“The eyes of the world and particularly the eyes of labor are upon us,” Drescher said. “What happens here is important, because what is happening to us is happening across all fields of labor. By means of when employers make Wall Street and greed their priority, and they forget about the essential contributors who make the machine run.”

The strike followed weeks of intense negotiations. SAG-AFTRA’s contract with the Alliance of Television and Film Producers was set to expire on June 30, but an extension pushed the expiration to July 12 at 11:59 p.m in the hopes of reaching a deal.

“We are deeply disappointed that SAG-AFTRA has decided to walk away from negotiations,” read the statement from the AMPTP. “This is the union’s choice, not ours. In doing so, it has dismissed our offer of historic pay and residual increases, substantially higher caps on pension and health contributions, audition protections, shortened series option periods, a groundbreaking [artificial intelligence] proposal that protects actors’ digital likenesses and more. Rather than continuing to negotiate, SAG-AFTRA has put us on a course that will deepen the financial hardship for thousands who depend on the industry for their livelihoods.”

The SAG-AFTRA strike begins on the 73rd day of the WGA strike. The two unions have asked for many of the same provisions in new contracts, including increased residual payments, protections against AI and standards for streaming series compensation. Since the beginning of the WGA strike on May 2, SAG-AFTRA members have joined the writers on the picket lines, with high profile celebrities like Jane Fonda, Rob Lowe and the entire cast of “Ted Lasso” lending their support.

“We are always aligned,” SAG-AFTRA member Aaron LaPlante said. “It is us against them. We make them rich, and they try to stay rich.”

Nearly 98% of SAG-AFTRA members voted in favor of a strike on June 5, just as the guild negotiators came to the table with the AMPTP. A federal negotiator was brought in on July 11 in the hopes of averting a strike, but soon afterwards the union reported it was “not confident” that an agreement would be made in time.

The last time the actors walked out was in 2000, when a six-month commercial actors strike was led by SAG and AFTRA, which at the time were separate entities. Another commercial actors strike lasted three weeks in 1988 and another lasted seven weeks in 1978-79. All-actors strikes occurred in 1986, for just 14 hours, and in 1980 for just over three months. In the early days of television, actors hit the picket lines for over two months in 1952, and they joined the striking WGA in 1960. In that instance, the actors strike was resolved within six weeks, but the WGA resolution took nearly five months.

SAG celebrated its 90th anniversary on July 12, the day the prior contract expired.

“It came with great sadness that we came to this crossroads, but we had no choice. We are the victims here. We are being victimized by a very greedy entity,” Drescher said. “I am shocked by the way that people that we have been in business with are treating us. I cannot believe it, quite frankly. How they plead poverty, that they’re losing money left and right, when giving hundreds of millions of dollars to their CEOs. It is disgusting. Shame on them. They stand on the wrong side of history at this very moment. We stand … in unprecedented solidarity.”