SAG-AFTRA Chief Negotiator Breaks Down ‘Robust’ Strike-Ending Deal, AI Protections

After nearly four months on the picket lines and at the bargaining table, the actors’ union SAG-AFTRA reached a tentative deal with the Hollywood Studios, or the Association of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), Wednesday evening. SAG-AFTRA leadership and its negotiating committee voted unanimously to approve the tentative agreement, suspending the strike, closing nationwide picket lines, and allowing actors to return to work. 

SAG-AFTRA and the Hollywood studios spent about 10 hours calling, messaging, and holding virtual meetings on Tuesday, according to SAG-AFTRA national executive director and chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, who tells Rolling Stone that up until deal time it was unclear that an agreement would be reached this week. 

“With 118 days on strike, 35 days of negotiations, that’s a long time, but I feel like we did arrive at the destination we needed to,” Crabtree-Ireland says.

On Nov. 4, Hollywood studios and streamers offered their “last, best, and final offer,” according to the SAG-AFTRA negotiating committee. But upon further review, SAG-AFTRA said in a statement that the offer failed to meet the union’s proposal on AI protections.  

The SAG-AFTRA national board plans to vote on the tentative agreement Friday, and if approved, it will head to the union’s 160,000 members to ratify the deal. Crabtree-Ireland spoke to Rolling Stone Thursday to discuss the volatile moments at the bargaining table and broke down deal points such as AI protections, residuals, and wage increases.  

The strike is finally over. How are you feeling? 
Great. I feel very excited we have reached an agreement that really meets the needs of our members and we’ll make sure that they’re protected over the next term of this contract, and frankly, far beyond, especially as it relates to things like artificial intelligence.

SAG-AFTRA announced that they met with Hollywood studios Monday and that the negotiating committee deliberated for 10 hours the following day. How would you describe the atmosphere during this week’s negotiations? 
I would describe it as intense and multifaceted and, frankly, it was not clear until yesterday that there was going to be a deal reached, where we knew it was going to happen. A lot of the crucial pieces of the deal had come together, but then there were still several key remaining elements, and those got resolved within the last 24 hours. So it was a pretty, pretty intense and volatile experience. But in the end, we were able to secure an agreement from the companies to what we need, especially on artificial intelligence.

AI protections have been a contentious issue throughout the strike. What has SAG-AFTRA won in terms of AI?
Whenever one of our companies is going to make a replica of an actor, using digital technology, including AI, they have to actually disclose to the actor exactly what that replica is going to be used for. And the actor has a right to say yes or no to that. And if they say yes, they get compensated for it, none of which existed before. [AI] protection is going to extend to the use of any kind of image or likeness of deceased performers, so their estate or their heirs or the beneficiaries of their representatives will have the ability to say yes or no to that. So there’s a really robust set of protections for performers that I think will not only protect them during the trial of this contract, but for many years thereafter. 

Can you go into more detail, specifically, about why the revenue-sharing model, which is now a streaming-participation bonus, was a particularly heated topic?
It became clear during the process that they would never agree to something, during this round of bargaining, that would attach to a revenue stream. So our committee decided to pivot and attach to the subscriber and viewership model. So in the end, the ultimate goal was to make sure that our members who are working with streaming have an income that lets them have a career. 

There have been significant improvements to the payments for streaming residuals. Will there still be some smaller checks? Yes. Those payments can fluctuate greatly…

The last time we spoke, we talked about a subscriber-pegged proposal that would cost streamers 57 cents per subscriber each year, which you said was less than the cost of a postage stamp. Is that included in the “streaming participation bonus”?
No. Unfortunately. 

The AMPTP said the tentative deal had “a brand new residual for streaming programs.” Does that mean actors will start receiving more than pennies on their residual checks [payments received from TV and film reruns]?
There have been significant improvements to the payments for streaming residuals. Will there still be some smaller checks? Yes. Those payments can fluctuate greatly, because as you might imagine, gross revenue as a measurement depends on what the distributor or the producer makes. So if there’s a quarter when they don’t make very much money, the residual check will be small. 

And finally, SAG-AFTRA initially asked for an 11 percent wage increase in the first year. The union announced yesterday that members will receive “above-pattern” minimum wage increases. What does that mean?
The pattern is 5 percent for the first year. We have achieved a number that is significantly above 5 percent. 

With the strike finally over, can you finally kick your feet up? 
Obviously the most intense and stressful part is over, thankfully, [with] this agreement being reached, but now we have to talk with the board, with our membership, and really engage in a robust education process because this agreement contains so many important changes for our members.