SAG-AFTRA national board votes to approve strike

Written by ABC Audio. All rights reserved. on July 13, 2023

(LOS ANGELES) — The national board of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) voted Thursday to go on strike, summoning its 160,000 members to hit the picket lines, union officials said.

The national board voted unanimously to proceed with a strike, said Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, national executive director of the union and the chief negotiator. He said union members will go on strike at midnight Thursday and called on members to join picket lines Friday morning.

Crabtree-Ireland said the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers “remains unwilling to offer a fair deal,” and so the SAG-AFTRA board of directors decided to issue the strike order against studios and streamers.

“Despite our team’s efforts the AMPTP has remained steadfast in its commitment to devaluing the work of our members,” Crabtree-Ireland said of the the weeks of negotiations.

Fran Drescher, president of SAG-AFTRA, said the “the eyes of the world and particularly the eyes of labor are upon us.”

“What happens here is important because what’s happening to us is what’s 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 that make the machine run,” Drescher said.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.