Sept. 27 (UPI) — Negotiators representing Hollywood’s striking actors and the major studios that employ them will head back to the negotiating table next week, officials said late Wednesday, after screenwriters returned to work following a near five-month work stoppage that ended with a deal hashed out over the weekend with the same producer union.
The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, which represents 160,000 actors, said in a statement that it and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers trade union will resume contract talks Monday.
Executives from AMPTP member companies will be present, it said.
“We appreciate the incredible displays of solidarity and support from all of you over the last 76 days of this strike,” the actors union said in a message to its members.
“We urge you to continue coming out to the picket lines in strength and big numbers every day!”
Hollywood shut down this summer as the Writers Guild of America and its some 11,000 members went on strike in early May followed by the SAG-AFTRA in mid-July.
With similar demands concerning the introduction of artificial intelligence in media creation and the burgeoning market of streaming that was not present when the last contracts were inked, both writers and actors picked up pickets and marched to the tune of studios losing millions.
Late Sunday, WGA said an agreement with the studios had been reached on a tentative deal, which three of its committees voted to unanimously recommend Tuesday, ending the strike and sending writers back to their writers’ rooms on Wednesday.
Its members will now vote on the package between Monday and Oct. 9.
Like the screenwriters, the actors are demanding better pay, residuals from streaming services and regulations on the use of AI, which are some of their key issues.
It also comes amid the threat of an expanded strike as SAG-AFTRA members voted 98.32% on Monday in favor of a work stoppage concerning their interactive media agreement that covers the union’s video game industry workers.
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