120,000 Hollywood Actors Possible Strike

After the writer’s strike, a bigger “walk out” is looming as the actors begin to make their move.

The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) have been in separate negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers for several weeks now – trying to make out the same deal the writers got for internet profits. Both groups are looking out for their members’ best interest – regardless of what the other group wants. And actors are caught in between the two, especially those who belong to both groups - not knowing which side to take.

We would like our readers to know that 72.1 percent of actors make less than $5,000 per year. Big named actors like Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Will Smith and the like comprise only 2% of the total actor populace. Like the writers, the majority of actors also need to get paid for internet profits and DVD sales – which are likely where most of the pay will come from in the near future. But is it even worth to try right now with the United States economy in peril?

Before working on its deal, the bigger union SAG focused its efforts on trying to persuade those in between to vote against AFTRA’s deal – which to them does not represent the majority of actors. The vote will be finalized on Tuesday. If everything goes well and the AFTRA deal is scrapped then SAG will then focus its efforts on striking a deal with the producers. If the AFTRA deal pushes through, then SAG will likely go on strike since its contract with producers ended just this past month.

Last July 1, Atty. Jonathan Handel, who also worked with the Writers Guild of America in their deal with Hollywood producers, met with some actors at the Actors’ Network headquarters in California. He was in favor of creating a single union for all actors; which is probably the best since all this difficulty was mainly the result of having two unions representing them. He talked about his experience with WGA and how pressured the producers were at that moment – with the Oscars soon on its way – and how the actors are not in that same leveraged position to just walk out. He said that the WGA deal was beneficial for the writers, but added that it could have been better and the writers could have asked for more – something that the actors need to go for in this new deal to make all of this worthwhile.

Overall, a strike is the last thing these actors need.

Even just the possibility of a strike is already causing problems. Because of this looming lockout, producers are not hiring actors who belong to the union. Why would they hire someone who will interrupt production as soon as his or her union calls for a strike? Again, not all actors are Will Smiths or Ben Stillers. Most of them can’t afford not to have a project; while Will Smith on the other hand, builds schools in his free time and Ben Stiller spends millions promoting his latest production.

When asked about the current situation, this is what Will Smith had to say:

“With the writers’ strike and Hollywood having been through this already this year and having lost millions of dollars, [a SAG strike is] just really not a good time for America, for California, or for a lot of people I know and work with. I hope we can come to a resolution all sides are happy with before it comes to that again. If it has to happen, I hope it moves rapidly. But the economy is terrible and we don’t need to be contributing to it.”

Amen, Sir.

This SAG thing is not for all actors, most of them believe that these additional gains are not worth striking over today.

Actor Phil Kaufman, a member of both SAG and AFTRA added in an interview with Entertainment Weekly: “About six months ago, I was the most pro-strike guy. Before the writers’ strike, I thought the writers’ strike was a just cause, I stood by it. The current SAG leadership has shown that they are not leadership capable of taking us into a strike. They’ve made strategic and tactical errors along the way that even if I thought it was a good idea on paper, this isn’t the gang to do it, and this isn’t the time to do it. That ship has sailed. So I think that reflects a lot of people I know, and others who have been on one side of things and have felt like whatever the justice of the cause, sadly, it’s analogous to the Iraq war. Whatever you think about how we got into it, we’re mired and there’s not way out but a series of lousy choices.”

The actors are suffering from the existence of the two unions. Actors are complaining that there have been years in which they could not meet the threshold for their health care and pension plans precisely because they belong to two separate unions. That is why instead of pushing their own deals the two unions should really just unite into a single party that represents all actors. No matter what happens, we hope that this issue is resolved in favor of the majority of the actors.

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