SAG-AFTRA Demonstration: Acting Out

On July 20, 2023, around 5pm, members and volunteers with the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) gathered in front of the AFL-CIO quarters in Washington, D.C. for a publicity photo in preparation for their demonstration. It was not a short walk away: the Motion Pictures Association is literally across the street.

People dressed in the trademark SAG-AFTRA teeshirt and carrying signs lined up along 16th Ave NW along Black Lives Matters Plaza as if forming a picket line, except they enthusiastically waved at passing vehicles tooting their horns and whooping it up and holding up their signs supporting their union, the WGA and SAG-AFTRA.

The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists had seen this coming. A few month ago, SAG-AFTRA issued a statement of support for the Writers Guild of America. According to President Fran Drescher: "We must focus on modernizing our outdated and conservative contract. It is essential that we reshape our agreement to better reflect the new digital and streaming business model that is rapidly changing our industry."

The Motion Pictures Association (which maintains one office at 888 16th Street NW) is a behemoth of entertainment industry names including Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures; Netflix Studios; Paramount Pictures; Sony Pictures; Universal City Studios; Warner Brothers Entertainment Inc. Anyone who has grown up in California would be familiar with the Universal Studio day tours, for instance. In recent decades the MPA has expanded its reach to include offices in Belgium, Brazil, Australia, South Korea, China, Singapore, Mexico, and Canada. The top-names and producers in the business can afford multiple citizenships and vacation homes.

The matter-at-hand in America is that bargaining is underway for both WGA and SAF-AFTRA for new contracts. According to a flyer by SAGAFTRAstrike.org, multimillionaire CEOs are describing the demands of actors and actresses as not realistic, disturbing, and disruptive. "TV/Theatrical/Streaming is devaluing, dehumanizing, and debasing performers," declares SAGAFTRAstrike.org. What historically is American nationalist and culturalist capital is increasingly viewed as arbitrary and dismissable.

"We're all up against a system where those in charge of global media conglomerates are rewarded for exploiting workers. Their pay goes up if they can keep us down. The companies represented by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) -- which include Amazon/MGM, Apple, Disney/ABC/Fox, NBCUniversal, Netflix, Paramount/CBS, Sony, Warner Bros. Discover and others -- are committed to prioritizing shareholders and profits." --#Power2Performers

Tawanda Underdo, a TV Theatrical Negotiating Committee and National Board member with SAG-AFTRA told reporters: "We're just everyday working people; it's not like the people that you see on the red carpet every day. Most of us are just average middle-class working people...We usually have three or four different jobs, but acting is our passion."

For someone not accustomed to seeing actors and actresses out striking, it was a chance to listen to others explain why this process is so important.

According to Dawn, and Princess, African-Americans, "We are not getting the proper amount of compensation for what we do. We want equal and fair treatment. Not using our images a million times, over and over again, reusing it with different words in your mouth, using your body and changing your face to something else. It's like if you wrote a paper and then they take your paper, scratch your name off, and then put their name on it, and then take the credit for it. It's not fair---it's plagiarism."

The regional actresses work multiple gigs, such as in local commercials, advertising, and campaigns. But they want their contracts to be fair, with equal pay for equal work.

In fact SAGAFTRA.org describes itself as a union comprised of "160,000 actors, announcers, broadcast journalists, dancers, DJs, news writers, news editors, program hosts, puppeteers, recording artists, singers, stunt performers, voiceover artists and other media professionals. Our work is seen and heard in theaters, on television and radio, sound recordings, the internet, games, mobile devices, home video: you see and hear us on all media distribution platforms. We are the faces and the voices that entertain and inform America..."

But increasingly, it is technologically possible, as in China, to use sophisticated facial-recognition systems which essentially map the face, capture the various facial expressions and muscle movements, and make them replicable. In Japan, it is possible to buy full human-face-masks which can con any camera operator into believing they are someone else. Using Apple and other voice-recognition technology, one can program the robot to not only recognize, but mimic voice. 3-D technology and printing makes it possible to even clone body parts. So forget the mandatory nose-job that South Korea studios demand as a prerequisite for consideration: Adobe graphics make it possible to graft a new nose onto your image.

This is exactly why SAG-AFTRA members (and others) want protection from abusive forms of artificial intelligence (AI) and "guarantees that performers will have the opportunity to give informed consent and be compensated when their voices or images are used in new projects." Other points worth a bargain for every day members include adequate insurance, health care, equal access to qualified hair and makeup professionals on the set, curtail off-loading of expenses especially in self-taped auditions and equipment, and up-to-date contracts that reflect the remote office places and technologies.

According to Tawanda, "Now, on streaming, it's like six or eight episodes --- they get pennies in residuals. And it's got to change."

American actors and actresses have always represented the values of all-America and its traditional support for all unions, offering a living wage, and protecting upward mobility. Even Bee Vang has expressed how grateful he was for his role in "Gran Torino," elevating the authenticity of Laotian-Americans, not having had the part doled out to non-Asian 'yellow-face.'

According to the Sheet Metal Air Rail Transportation (SMART) union representative Johnny Walker, other union groups have a vested interest as well. For instance, at the end of December last year, the White House, Congress, railroad corporations, and union representatives reached a negotiated settlement. They have three health-and-welfare days a year, and received a 3% pay-raise. They could not even negotiate to keep up with the cost-of-living increase, which with inflation, is almost three times the pay-raise percentage in 2022.

In fact other volunteers also joined in and lined up around the block including students, independent actors and actresses, and other AFL-CIO union members. For more information on whether or not a member can still work, audition, attend non-affected productions and programs, visit SAGAFTRA.org or SAGAFTRASTRIKE.org.