SAG-AFTRA
The Screen Actors Guild–American Federation of Television and Radio Artists is an American labor union formed in 2012 by the merger of the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. It represents approximately 170,000 media professionals worldwide. SAG-AFTRA is a member of the AFL-CIO, the largest federation of unions in the United States. SAG-AFTRA is also a member of the International Federation of Actors.
History
Background
The organization was formed on March 30, 2012, following the merger of the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. In January 2013, Variety reported that the merger had proceeded with "few bumps", amid shows of good will on both sides. The stickiest remaining problem was reported to be the merger of the two pension funds, in part as a way of dealing with the issue of performers who paid into each plan but did not quite earn enough under either of the old plans to qualify for a pension.SAG-AFTRA is headquartered in Los Angeles, California, and in New York City, in addition to other local offices nationwide.
Actor Awards
The Actor Awards is an awards ceremony founded in 1995 to recognize outstanding performances in movie and primetime television. It has been one of the major awards events in the Hollywood film industry since then, along with the Golden Globe Awards and the Academy Awards. The awards focus both on individual performances and on the work of the entire ensemble of a drama series and comedy series, and the cast of a motion picture.SAG-AFTRA Producers Pension and Health Plans
The 2012 merger of SAG and AFTRA was followed by the joining of each former union's health care and pension plans. The Plans are administered by trustees representing the industry, as well as performers. In 2024, a proposed class action lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court for the Central District of California against the SAG-AFTRA Health Plan for negligence, subsequent to a cyberattack resulting in a data breach. The suit resulted in a settlement by the union and its members in August 2025.Composition
SAG-AFTRA has a diverse membership consisting of actors, announcers, broadcast journalists, dancers, disc jockeys, news writers, news editors, program hosts, puppeteers, recording artists, singers, stunt performers, voice-over artists, and other media professionals.Membership in SAG-AFTRA is considered a rite of passage for new performers and media professionals. It is often procured after getting hired for their first job in a studio that has a collective bargaining agreement with the union. SAG-AFTRA work is considered to be substantially more prestigious than non-union jobs. Due to the size and influence of the union, most major media firms have a collective bargaining agreement with SAG-AFTRA through the Association of Motion Picture and Television Producers. Studios that have signed a collective bargaining agreement with SAG-AFTRA are not closed shops but are generally required to give preference to union members when hiring.
Nearly all professional actors working for medium or large-scale American media firms are union members. According to SAG-AFTRA's Department of Labor records since its founding, around a third of the union's total membership has consistently been considered "withdrawn", "suspended", or otherwise not categorized as "active" members. These members are ineligible to vote in the union. In April 2014, "Honorable withdrawals" constituted the largest portion of these, at 20% of the total membership, or 46,934 members; "suspended payment" members were the second-largest, at 14%, or 33,422 members, with the merged union using a classification scheme carried over from the Screen Actors Guild, rather than the one previously used by AFTRA.
Factions
The union is perceived as having two factions. The larger faction says it is focused on creating job opportunities for members. A second faction has criticized the current administration for being too quick and soft when it comes to negotiations with studios.Major strikes and boycotts
Global Rule One
states: "No member shall render any services or make an agreement to perform services for any employer who has not executed a basic minimum agreement with the union, which is in full force and effect, in any jurisdiction in which there is a SAG-AFTRA national collective bargaining agreement in place. This provision applies worldwide."Simply put, a SAG-AFTRA member must always work under a union contract around the globe.
"Do not work" orders are formally issued to denote productions that have not entered into the required agreements.
2016–2017 strike
After approximately a year and a half of negotiations, SAG-AFTRA issued a strike on October 21, 2016, against eleven American video game developers and publishers, including Activision, Electronic Arts, Insomniac Games, Take 2 Interactive, and WB Games. The strike resulted from attempted negotiations since February 2015 to replace the previous contract, the Interactive Media Agreement, that expired in late 2014. There were four major issues they fought for with this strike: establishing transparency in contract negotiation; preventing vocal stress from long recording sessions; providing safety assurances for stunt coordinators on performance capture sets; and giving payments of residuals based on sales of a video game, which have traditionally not been used in the video game industry. SAG-AFTRA members sought to bring equity for video game actors as in other industries, while the video game companies feared that giving residuals to actors would overshadow the contributions of programmers and artists that contribute to the games. It was the first such organized strike within the video game industry and the first voice actors' strike in 17 years, as well as the first strike within the merged SAG-AFTRA organization. As of April 23, 2017, it became the longest strike within SAG, surpassing the 95-day 1980 Emmy Awards strike, and the 2000 commercials strike.An agreement was reached on September 23, 2017, ending the 340-day strike.
Strike against Bartle Bogle Hegarty
On September 20, 2018, SAG-AFTRA called a strike against global advertising agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty after the company announced they would no longer honor a long-standing contract with SAG-AFTRA. SAG-AFTRA launched a successful strike action that drew thousands of members to picket lines and strike actions across the country. At the close of the strike, BBH agreed to return to SAG-AFTRA's contract.In 2018, BBH had withdrawn from their contract with SAG-AFTRA, which was first agreed on in 1999, over contractual terms that stated BBH would not be allowed to hire non-union actors. BBH stated it put them at a competitive disadvantage as many of their peer agencies were not signatories.
SAG-AFTRA members' successful strike actions, including pickets and rallies throughout the US, proved a success for SAG-AFTRA. Several actions of note included a rally of 1,000 SAG-AFTRA members and supporters near SAG-AFTRA Headquarters at the La Brea Tar Pits, and a picket line at BBH Headquarters in Los Angeles that drew an estimated 1,000 members standing in solidarity on the picket line.
On July 20, 2019, SAG ended its 10-month strike against BBH after the advertising agency agreed to sign the union's new commercials contract.
2023 strike
In June 2023, the guild voted to authorize a strike if its negotiating committee failed to reach an agreement on a new contract with major Hollywood studios by June 30. On June 27, over 300 actors signed a letter threatening to go on strike. Signatories include Jennifer Lawrence, Meryl Streep, Rami Malek and Amy Schumer. The next day, signatories had reached 1,000 members. Key issues in the negotiations include issuing residuals based on viewership data and finding a uniform metric on which to judge all streaming platform data. Further issues include limiting the use of self-tape auditions and preventing the use of artificial intelligence and computer generated voices and faces within the entertainment industry. On July 10, 2023, SAG-AFTRA laid out potential strike rules including: no shoots, no press, and no social media promos for any actors or actresses under the guild. A representative of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers spoke about the compensation offered to actors to avoid a strike. The alliance, which negotiated with the union on behalf of Netflix, Disney, and Warner Bros. stated that SAG-AFTRA deliberately distorts the course of negotiations. The deal, which SAG-AFTRA refused on July 12, included more than $1 billion for an increase in salaries, pensions and health insurance, was designed for a three-year period and included the protection of actors from the use of their images by artificial intelligence.On July 13, SAG-AFTRA announced that its television, theatrical, and streaming contract with the alliance had expired without an agreement to replace it. They announced that the SAG-AFTRA negotiating committee had voted unanimously to strike. SAG-AFTRA also announced that their National Board would meet later that morning to decide on whether or not SAG-AFTRA would go on strike. SAG-AFTRA said they would make their decision known to the public at 12 p.m. PST in a press conference at SAG-AFTRA plaza in Los Angeles. During the press conference, SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher and national executive director and chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland confirmed that members had voted to strike and that the strike would begin July 14. This marked the first strike that involved actors in the film and television industry since 1980, and also the first time since 1960 that both SAG-AFTRA and the WGA would strike at the same time. The strike would last for almost four months, eventually coming to an end on November 9, 2023. The deal received 78.33% approval among voting SAG-AFTRA members when the voting concluded on December 5.