“They’re not acting in a movie; the actors have gone on strike.”

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The union representing Hollywood actors is poised to strike and join writers on picket lines in back-to-back walkouts for the first time since 1960, widening the labor conflict that has roiled the film and TV industry.

What does SAG-AFTRA want?

In many ways, what SAG-AFTRA wants is similar to what the WGA wants, all of which is driven by technology.

In a streaming-forward world, the typical TV season length has shrunk drastically, from the traditional broadcast model (up to 26 episodes per season) down to maybe eight or 10 episodes. That means actors are working far less on each job and tend to have larger gaps between jobs, which means it’s harder to make a steady living. But compensation hasn’t kept pace with the shift, and SAG-AFTRA is asking for a raise.

Like the WGA, SAG-AFTRA is also enormously concerned about the potential for rapidly developing AI to replace its members. (And it should be.) In a bulletin to members addressing their concerns, SAG-AFTRA leadership cited creating guidelines around acceptable uses of AI, bargain protections against misuse, and consent and fair compensation when members’ work (such as their likeness or voice ) is used to train AI systems and create new performances.

There’s also one actor-specific demand: The guild wants to put limits on the use of “self-tape” auditions — where an actor performs a scene on their own time and sends a video of it to producers — which they call “a massive , daily, uncompensated burden on the lives of performers.”

Generally, you can think of it this way: SAG-AFTRA believes that studios are trying to find ways around paying members enough to maintain what they term a “middle-class” existence, and they want to fix that now and protect against the threat in the future, largely so that acting doesn’t become work only available to the very wealthy or privileged.

Why isn’t AMPTP budging?

When asked, the studies tend to cite tough economics as the reason they can’t raise minimums or residuals. (They don’t talk a lot about AI, which in itself is probably worth noting.) Like the WGA, SAG-AFTRA takes issue with that math. In their bulletin, they note that “in sharp contrast to the diminishing compensation paid to our members, the studios are posting immense profits with a bullish outlook as demonstrated by lavish corporate executive compensation.”

35% of SAG-AFTRA Foundation employees are Hispanic or Latino.