Hollywood Actors Union Reaches Tentative Deal With Studios to End Strike

TIME

Hollywood’s actors union reached a tentative deal with studios Wednesday to end its strike, bringing a close to months of labor strife that ground the entertainment industry to a historic halt.

Transcript

00:00 [crowd cheering]

00:02 - It feels, it feels unreal right now.

00:09 I was at home, you know, relaxing

00:13 and I started seeing Twitter kind of going off

00:17 and I was like, not sure if this source is credible,

00:20 not sure if this was.

00:22 Then I saw it in the LA Times

00:24 and then I saw Francis Fisher posted

00:27 and the WGA congratulate us

00:29 and I was like, oh my goodness.

00:31 And my captain's chat started going wild.

00:34 - I was really excited, really happy

00:37 and around five o'clock we were talking

00:40 and somebody was like, there's a deal

00:41 and I was like, oh my God.

00:43 And then we waited until it came in

00:45 and we were like, really, really happy.

00:47 I was just really happy.

00:48 I was like, yes!

00:49 - Around, I guess, 10 to five or so,

00:51 we found out that we had a deal

00:53 and yeah, I was basically done for the night

00:56 and then we found out about that

00:58 and then, you know, the trust that we had put

01:02 into the negotiating committee all came to fruition

01:07 and, you know, it was a great feeling

01:10 to know that we were able to cut a deal.

01:13 - This sends a very clear message

01:15 that unions work, labor movements work.

01:18 It was a hard labor summer turned into a hard labor año

01:22 and now, you know, we can do it.

01:24 Si se puede, like, keep going.

01:27 Unionize if you're not, they work

01:29 because we are the people who make businesses move.

01:33 It's the people on the ground who make businesses move

01:36 and, you know, any other labor movements

01:39 that are going on, we support them.

01:41 - It's been a long process, but I feel really excited

01:44 that we have reached this point

01:46 that today, after 118 days on strike,

01:48 we finally have an agreement.

01:50 It's an agreement that our members can be proud of.

01:52 I'm certainly very proud of it.

01:53 So I think our members, as we were able

01:55 to release more of the details of it,

01:57 we'll look at them and say, you know,

01:59 this is something that was worth being on strike for

02:02 and our union has helped protect our future.

02:05 And really, as someone who's committed

02:08 to being part of the labor movement,

02:09 that's what it's all about.

02:10 AI was one of the more challenging topics

02:12 in this negotiation from the very beginning,

02:14 I think, because it's not a topic

02:16 that everybody necessarily is fully conversant in

02:20 and it also is something that has evolved

02:22 even while we've been in this negotiation process

02:25 the capabilities of generative AI tools

02:28 have expanded dramatically.

02:30 So we have really been focused on making sure

02:32 that the guardrails that we negotiated for

02:35 were future proof or at least future resistant

02:39 so that as we went through,

02:41 not just the term of this contract, but afterwards,

02:43 these guardrails would continue to be effective

02:45 in protecting our members.

02:46 And they are centered around informed consent

02:49 and fair compensation.

02:50 And I feel very confident when our members see

02:53 what we have done with the AI provisions

02:54 that they will feel that they are being well protected

02:57 against the likely developments

03:00 in this part of the industry.

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