geoff: The actors' union
sag-aftra has reached a
tentative deal with the
Hollywood studios, ending the
longest strike for TV and film
actors in history.
The deal, worth more than $1
billion, includes new levels of
minimum compensation, bonuses
tied to streaming, and the first
protections against artificial
intelligence.
Sag-aftra president Fran
Drescher joins me now.
Welcome back to the newshour.
Fran: Thank you.
I am happy to be here.
Geoff: You have described this
as an historic agreement.
In what ways?
Fran: First of all, we broke
through the billion dollar mark,
so that is a crowning
achievement.
And we developed protections in
language and consent and
compensation in the area of
artificial intelligence that
never existed before.
We broke a brand-new stream of
revenue for people on the
streaming platforms that never
existed before.
That is additional money.
We broke pattern with the other
unions, the wga and the dj, so
we got more minimum wage growth
than they did, which is unusual.
And unprecedented.
And we got an amazing deal for
our lowest earning members, who
are our background performers.
We had all kinds of new things
that have never been in the
contract before because of the
digital age and how it has
impacted our industry.
Even when it comes to auditions
and interviews on home tapes,
that has to be redefined.
We are still working on that,
but at least we got some
improvements for those people
because everything needed to
have regulations.
People don't do the right thing
unless they are forced to.
As Frederic Douglas said,
power concedes nothing without
demands.
That is what this was all about.
We knew it was an historic time
because of the digitization of
our industry, and we knew that
we needed a seminal deal, and I
feel very proud to say we got
one.
Geoff: A question about
streaming, because as I
understand the union had to
compromise fairly significantly
on streaming.
The union wanted 1% or 2% of
revenue of streaming shows, and
ultimately settled for less.
Tell us more about that
compromise.
Fran: We settled for more than
last.
That was -- first we identified
there was a very real problem
between this new model of
exhibition and how it could
never be properly compensated
for with the old contract.
Geoff: Can I ask, what is a
model of exhibition?
Fran: Like the streaming
platforms.
The show on streaming.
That means that if your show is
made for a streaming platform,
you are never going to get the
kind of residuals that you would
if you were on, let's say,
network television.
Because you don't get paid in
the same way with reruns.
You don't have syndication
money.
And so, our members were feeling
that as more and more shows were
getting produced on streaming
platforms.
So, the actual structure of the
contract had to change.
And they were reticent to do it,
and I said to their faces, I
want you to understand why this
is important because maybe you
don't, and then after I tell you
this, I want you to understand
this is a dealbreaker.
I think that they really
understood that.
I was being very honest with
them.
Geoff: As this deal reached the
finish line, artificial
intelligence remained one of the
most complicated issues to
resolve.
How do these new protections
benefit actors?
Fran: When you start out in an
environment where they don't
have to ask your permission, and
now they have to, that is a huge
difference.
That speaks volumes.
That means that you are in
control of your likeness, you
are in control of if you want to
be duplicated, if you want some
kind of synthetic version of you
on screen.
And that puts a lot of control
back into the performers hands,
because the
performers like this --
likeness, performance,
everything that makes them,
them.
I think there was quite a bit of
back channeling to get the
messaging across that without
this, we are going to protract
the strike.
It is as simple as that.
Inai a month is
equivalent to a year.
Without the protections we
needed, there was no way we were
going to sign a three-year
contract because three years
from now the whole idea of it is
going to be a completely
different animal.
And if we don't put a saddle on
that wild pony now and pull in
the rains, we are never going to
be able to catch it.
Geoff: This deal comes nearly
four months after the strike
started.
I was going to ask you, was it
worth the wait?
It seems like the answer to that
from your point of view is yes.
But I will rephrase the question
differently.
Could you have arrived at this
deal any earlier?
Or did it just take time for
people to test the leverage
points that they thought they
had?
Fran: I think there was a lot of
that.
First of all, from the
beginning, I think that they
needed to adjust to the fact
that we are a union that was at
a point where we had the largest
strike authorization in our
history.
And at the leadership, meaning
myself and Duncan Crabtree
Ireland, were new to them in our
roles, and we were no pushovers
and we were not going to be
intimidated.
So, once they had that rude
awakening, there had to be
adjustments.
They walked away from the table
at one point, but that
intimidation tactic did not work
for us.
Then, they would take a week at
least before they would come
back with even supposal, let
alone a counter, when they did
come back.
From our side, patience and time
is the secret sauce.
And we never felt a need to rush
in order to come to a conclusion
of what needed to happen.
As a result of that, we remained
in unity, and as a result of
that, when we finally got that
last piece of ai in place and
the last piece needed for the
streaming platform new resident
-- new revenue source, we were
ready to make a motion and pass
without objection, and that is
what happened.
That in itself is historic.
Geoff: Thanks so much for your
time.
Fran: Thank you.
I appreciate.
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