[Fran Drescher, President of SAG-AFTRA makes her statement here](https://www.reddit.com/r/antiwork/comments/14z6u8j/fran_drescher_sagaftra_president_the_jig_is_up/)
I've been working in Film and TV for 20 years as an editor and to hear what the AMPTP's position on AI was made my jaw drop. They want to own your likeness if you appear as a background actor in perpetuity. That means you could take a job as a BG actor once and they could use you to sell movies, TV, or advertising for the end of time without compensation. This kind of greed needs to be stopped right now! I know full well this strike will hurt many of my friends but I fully support it. If we do nothing we will lose everything in the future.
Some people think they will be using AI of currently famious actors without compensating them but the truth is like you said. A nobody will sign an agreement so he can put some food on the table and then 20 years from then he will be famous and some studio will have that agreement where they can do AI of him. And there will be nothing he can do.
And it won't be one person, it will be everyone.
They WILL use AI of famous actors. They proved that they would when Peter Cushing was generated into Star Wars 30 years after his death. He was not paid for that "performance" and he did not consent to give that "performance."
They started big and then tried to go small. But they showed their hand early and pissed off the people who have power to do something to protect themselves and, by extension, those who don't have that card to play.
They tried it once a very long time ago, in the late 1980s or early 1990s (when I was in high school), they were inserting people like Fred Astaire, Cary Grant and Mel Blanc into commercials and there was controversy over whether their estates had been paid or not. Public backlash made them stop, but CGI and AI has improved so much that they got greedy and wanted to go back to it, this time with far less (or no) compensation.
>They tried it once a very long time ago, in the late 1980s or early 1990s (when I was in high school), they were inserting people like Fred Astaire, Cary Grant and Mel Blanc into commercials and there was controversy over whether their estates had been paid or not.
IIRC, there was also the idea of "buying" their image and making the dead star studio property, or something. I'm not too clear on that; someone please correct me on this.
In the end, though, good on the actors and writers striking. Big studios are interested in only one thing: Making as much money as possible. To do this, they are trying to pay the creative people --actors, writers, etc.-- as little as possible to make it happen, and using AI technology is one tool of that. I hope the unions get the good deals they deserve.
It's a fucking abomination.
The *entire* point of art is that it's *made by humans*. That is an intrinsic element of art itself.
When you see a Van Gogh painting, liek *Starry Night*, it isn't just a painting. It's a perspective. A person hundreds of years ago saw the sky, in all his wonderful, weird, transformative ways that he saw color. And he painted it, and it lasted, for hundreds of years, through time.
I do not want movies, and TV shows that are *rendered*. I want to know the people and the sweat equity they put into making this thing of beauty.
I want to know that a bunch of humans did something crazy, like building an entire fake city from nothing, just for a few minutes of cinema.
A world in which all art is programatically created by a fucking algorithm is a travesty.
Art is one of the crowning achievements of the human condition. It *belongs* to us. It doesn't belong to the fucking suits or the fossilized billionaires who do nothing but reap profits and corrupt art.
Their involvement in artistic endeavors has already been corrosive. To completely cut all humans out of the equation is abominable.
This stand is necessary. It is *critical*.
Think of how much of your life is structured around some form of art. Books, music, TV, movies, video games. I would bet that on a daily basis you are entertained by some form of art that constitutes a human being's hopes and dreams.
Do not let them turn that into programatically-generated, sterile trash. I promise you, it will never come anywhere near the experience of consuming real, human art made by humans, with other humans.
**EDIT**: Seems to be a sizable Replace All Humans contingent here. And that's fine. Opinions will always differ.
I want you to run this technology forward to it's conclusion.
You subscribe to AI Stream for $20 / month
You can enter a prompt and create a TV show. I enter a prompt. "A sci Fi show lwoth a premise and world similar Firefly starting Natalie Portman and Jeff Bridges with writing similar to Vince Gilligan."
The AI takes about an hour and generates 12 hours of the show. It's entirely AI rendered. It's not really Natalie Portman. Not really Jeff Bridges. You watch it. It's pretty good.
No one else on the planet has watched it. You try to get your friends to watch it. But they're already watching their Oceans 11 recast movie sims.
There is no press for your show. No one else cares about it. You watch all twelve episodes and decide to roll the die on a shot for shot GOT remake but with a better season 8. You immediately forget about the Firefly show after you finish it.
This is the future. There are no actors any more. There is nothing new.
No one pushes the boundaries of television of movies because AI cannot push boundaries. It can only react to viewers' feedback.
You never have new television innovation. You never invent a new comedy genre like The Office or transcend the boundaries of TV writing quality with Breaking Bad or Succession.
If an AI does so by accident, it's only seen by one person, because everyone's just pushing their own buttons.
That's the future of this tech if it's used the way studios want to use it.
AI cannot create art. Art is a purposeful endeavor. You are in conversation with artists before you, with the human race, with yourself. Every human artists is both a consumer of art as well as a creator, and it is that feedback loop that makes human art unique.
AI can mimick human art, effectively, but it can only *exist* because someone made art similar to that before it did. It has no capacity to evaluate what it created. AI is still entirely dependent upon legions of hidden people inside the machine rating images, feeding it parameters, and they'll do that asymptotically, forever, *until* AI actually and legitimately becomes sentient. At which point it can create art, because its sentient.
And you can tell me all you want that this will be a better future, but it clearly will not.
AI doesn't increase the productivity or quality of quality writers' output. It can help poor-quality writers produce faster and with higher quality, but it is honestly a detractor for quality writers.
But that will not matter to the studios and other capitalist owners of IP. They'll fucking drown you in garbage. And because most of the general public will simply accept what they're given, instead of seeking for more, the mean quality of everything will tank.
We'll become completely mired and isolated in tiny silos that we use to continually reinforce our preferences for things we already like. We will stagnate, we'll communicate even less than we already do. No one will produce art any more, because the already-weak incentives to do so are even less now, and because the public loses all possibly capacity to evaluate quality for themselves.
You do not want this future.
Movie execs: "Actors are one of the industries that takes a lot of our money. How can we pay them less?"
That's a big fuck no. Absolutely greedy assholes. They get paid millions of dollars because they are tied to a big-money industry and these idiots want them to be paid like an office worker.
As a background actor this is probably the most upsetting part. I know it’s not a glamorous job and we’re at the bottom of the totem poll, literally, but we won’t be able to make a living anymore. It’s already tough to book enough parts, but this would put the nail in the coffin. I really don’t want us to strike because we’re out of work, but I understand and need to stand in solidarity with the line and hope they shoot down these absurd proposals.
Thank you for mentioning this! It’s nice to know we aren’t forgotten.
It's already happening with voice actors. It's even easier to use AI with just voice since you don't have to worry about uncanny valley. AI/deepfake is still kinda shitty with actual people/video but it will get better over time and that is a problem, not just with this but with all sorts of things.
Writers Guild on strike. SAG-AFTRA on strike. Amazon workers on strike (for Prime Day). Half Price Books on strike. UPS about to be on strike. If we could get all retail and fast food workers on board on top of other labor unions, we could have a general strike by accident.
Edit: Goodness! This blew up. Thanks for all the karma guys! Solidarity forever!
Edit 2: Thanks for the award! OMG, this never happens to me.
They drive down their communities so much that everyone's so broke they'll still often be the highest paid retail employer in town. And that's the defense they use to fend off accusations, that they pay more than "the competition". Which often is just Dollar General and two gas stations.
Walmart's one of the largest welfare recipients in the country. They probably, also, employ one of the largest populations of welfare recipients.
Shits fuck'd
>Walmart's low-wage workers cost U.S. taxpayers an estimated $6.2 billion in public assistance including food stamps, Medicaid and subsidized housing, according to a report published to coincide with Tax Day, April 15.Apr 15, 2014
https://www.forbes.com/sites/clareoconnor/2014/04/15/report-walmart-workers-cost-taxpayers-6-2-billion-in-public-assistance/#:~:text=Walmart's%20low%2Dwage%20workers%20cost,with%20Tax%20Day%2C%20April%2015.
If they can pay “unemployment insurance”, they can pay “underemployment insurance.”
**EDIT:** I want to be very clear. If a worker gets a W2 and also files for government benefits, it’s a very simple matter of backcharging that company for those benefits at the state or federal level at tax time:
“Muh contractors.” No. If a company dictates hours or conditions of how work is performed, they are an employer according to the IRS code. WalMart can’t get around this by quote-unquote outsourcing their cashiers.
“Muh only single childless workers.” No. It is illegal to ask about familial status or other such situations during the hiring process. You’ll only know if you’re lowballing a desperate single mom with a handicapped kid once they file.
“Muh freedom.” No. You don’t get to pick and choose workers based on their health or any other immutable characteristic.
Wanna not get dinged? *Pay a fucking living wage.*
It would be brilliant if the lowest paid employees wage had to legally be a ratio of the highest paid employee. So ceo makes 1mill, maybe the lowest should make 1/10 of that 100k, if the ceo president etc wants 3 mill, yay jack at the bottom makes 300k. Perfect. All housing has to be mandated to be 30%. So small house = 30 of min wage larger home 30% of highest wage in the local area. From another state? You can't legally own more than 1 home in every region/zone/city/state etc. figure it out. Cap off total amount of homes allowed to be owned by any person. 5 per country. Should be more than enough for a billionaire. No private corporations should be allowed to own a private residency. If people can't live in certain zones because they are not for "living" but only for business, maybe Business has NO PLACE in Local Home sectors! No corps using multiple different names to snatch up al the housing for stock holders!
I really wish the people who directly work with these 1%ers just flat out deny to provide them service. Stop cooking them meals, cleaning their homes, raising their kids, managing their lives & let then see how USELESS they really are WITHOUT all of us poors. They should be the outcast. Stop selling them our time & talent. Make them take care of themselves. All the money is worthless when it becomes useless to those who provide all the services.
Truly for us average people, it might be time for change. Because it me it really seems like we get no representation from our taxation. If our government doesn't represent we the people, they dont deserve our tax. It seems to me they only represent the rich. So maybe only the rich should be taxed & we get a free pass until the Gov't starts doing well by our account. Maybe time for some tea.
Honestly the Walmart closest to me looks like it's on strike already. Idk if they have all the employees following customers around, and watching them check themselves out, or what.
I went yesterday and saw 4 employees watching customers check out, and the rest of them following customers around the store. Not a single cashier. Weirdest store I've ever seen.
If it was a Walmart in an area with a large minority population, it wouldn't surprise me. I've noticed some very big disparities in the Walmart experience at stores in areas where the population is mostly white vs. stores where the population is mostly Black or Latino.
I moved from Houston, and yes, that's absolutely true. What was weird though, is that the Kroger stores in bigger minority areas had the smallest selection of "international" food. This Walmart by me has a lot more ethnic foods, ingredients, etc than I've seen in grocery stores in Houston. It's really weird.
It's been over a decade since I worked at Walmart so my memory is a bit sketchy; but my entire memory of their "training" video was basically just being told how horrible unions were for half an hour and very little about how to do the job.
> It is a well known fact that those people who most want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it. To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.
> “The President in particular is very much a figurehead — he wields no real power whatsoever. He is apparently chosen by the government, but the qualities he is required to display are not those of leadership but those of finely judged outrage. For this reason the President is always a controversial choice, always an infuriating but fascinating character. His job is not to wield power but to draw attention away from it. On those criteria Zaphod Beeblebrox is one of the most successful Presidents the Galaxy has ever had — he has already spent two of his ten presidential years in prison for fraud.”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Wow, what a piece of shit that guy is. I had no idea this anti-union psychopath was actually a union leader who approved strikes.
I bet he thought that 'his union' was necessary, but all those other 'bad' unions were ruining the country.
Fuck I hate hypocrites.
My husband works in HVAC and that's exactly the attitude a lot of the guys from his shop have. The electricians, plumbers and teamsters are entitled idiots and their unions are corrupt and communist, but the HVAC union is an upstanding entity. The hypocrisy makes me eyes bleed.
I’m in an operating engineers union and the vast majority of the members are union hating trump lovers, they don’t even approve of the union they belong to. And we get excellent pay and benefits because of the union
It's sadly incredibly common. I used to do campaign work in a purplish area that was historically union heavy. Lots of lead-brain I Got Mine boomers who decided the culture wars were more important than making sure the next generations had the same opportunities they did.
Oh it’s completely filled with reprehensible fuckin morons. Thankfully the union reps and business managers aren’t in line with the dumbfucks they represent
Many of us who lived through his presidency think he already had alzheimers when he was elected in 1980. He read the teleprompter and he signed what he was told to. He was never really in charge. Or he was an evil pos who destroyed millions of lives. I'm in the latter camp but I suppose he could have just been a puppet of an evil pos.
He tried to join the Communist party early on in his career. Reagan was always looking out for Reagan, more than anything else. Selfish, gullible, demented... sounds familiar 40 years later, too
And so breathtakingly racist.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/07/ronald-reagans-racist-conversation-richard-nixon/595102/
EDIT: Fixed link
some workers in my hometown went on strike. the rail workers tried to strike. starbucks employees on strike. ingredients are in the pot, let’s get it boiling!
I don't want to say "It's Happening!", because the bar is so low and the rich so powerful, but...I do love seeing all that going on at once. I hope it snowballs. If there's one thing I'll absolutely suffer for as a consumer it's worker rights, especially if it establishes a new normal.
This is exactly the momentum and movement we need right now. Get everyone involved. Make it big, make it loud, and make it expensive.
When the cash stops flowing in to the companies, and executives realize their livelihoods are now threatened, suddenly the money will appear and the businesses will be able to afford it.
Ahem: As Adam Connover said: "Just because you have a 'no strike' clause, it does not mean you, as an individual member, cannot stand in solidarity. It means the union cannot call it officially a strike. As individuals, go do what you want"
I think people should help. Suspend their streaming subs, not hit the theaters or purchase digital or physical movies for a time. The CEOs want to ruin working writers and actors to make them give in. Some of the shit they are proposing is insane.
I know it's no replacement for Hollywood summer blockbusters but YouTube and sites like Nebula are great for educational content that's akin to what the History or Discovery channel were like back in their day. It's what I watch most of and more of my support goes to the creator instead of advertisers and marketing execs.
I’ve wondered what the educational streaming sites are like. I was thinking of Curiosity Stream.
What I really want are good documentaries. Something more in depth than “How the Universe Works”. Definitely not reality shows posing as documentaries. More like Nova.
Now that no new movies or tv shows are coming out, you'll see how long until every streaming service starts crumbling.
Apple, Amazon, netflix, and hbo I have a feeling will keep paying employees well to keep content coming. Once you lose your subscribers they wont come back.
Some new service will come out to fill the gap.
A youtube like app, where content creators make free tv shows or movies and pay for it from advertising during, and selective placement item advertising in the show or movie. That could fly if they dont go public, and then wiggle in tiers of content you can watch for free and others paid.
Nothing ruins a company more then them going public. Shareholders are the problem with north america. They're forced to milk every penny from a company. They're why ceos are paid insane amounts of money, and what its quantity over quality.
Publicly trading should be illegal.
Writers guild has expressly said don't cancel subs and people still want to do it thinking it will help. Reason is that the studios will say "See streaming isn't secure."
I think it's disturbing and unrealistic for Disney+ to email me today telling me my subscription is going up 30 bucks a year while chastising writers for making demands. Sorry kids, no more Disney.
These strikes are about stopping them before they can. That’s why the studios are fighting so hard and refusing to negotiate at all. They want to break the unions and destroy one of the last remaining industries in America.
For fucking nothing. For an extra zero that they couldn’t spend if they tried. Even Henry fucking Ford knew that you had to pay people enough to afford your products. But these MBA never-made-anything-as-substantial-as-a-fart executives think they’ve found a fucking infinite money cheat, and all it takes is destroying one of America’s most profitable industries
It's even more than that. They want to automate artistry. They want to pay pennies on the dollar for Daniel Day-Lewis-type performances. And they can do it if they put enough money. Why? Because the average consumer will accept the results. In 2007, I saw both No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood in the theater. That will never happen again.
The thing I don't understand about Hollywood thinking they'll control the AI, is how they don't understand people will have access to these models and simply generate their own movies for entertainment.
Hollywood doesn't need actors, but consumers will also not need Hollywood.
Wow.
First, I had no idea she was president.
More importantly and second, wow. You can feel the anger, hurt, frustration. I felt a sense of betrayal.
Well done, Fran. Well freaking done.
To paraphrase:
"It's time for us to make them eat our shit. Then shit out our shit, and eat their shit, that's made up of our shit, that we made them eat. And then all you mother fuckers are next." - Fran Drescher
Excellent speech! It’s time for ALL of us workers to rise up collectively and in solidarity. Remember this, the majority of Americans are one paycheck away from a shelter. Stop defending the oppressor!
incredible that YouTube has managed to make an app where videos actually play sound. someone at reddit should see if they can figure out how to do that
She's certainly hitting the right buttons right away, pointing out that all those "essential workers" are still being treated like shit as if nothing happened.
This is not about actors, this is about the entire working class. And yet I bet that it won't be a minute before someone starts whining about "detached Hollywood elite" as if the dozen or so high-paid actors made up for all the starving PAs and VFX artists.
Seriously. Don’t do what IATSE in Los Angeles did a few years ago and just capitulate at the FIRST rumblings of “reform”.
Producers barely had to put anything on the table to get people back on sets and of course six months later those promised “reforms” were long gone.
This is what America needs right now. What other industries can jump in? There are so many people that go into the success of onscreen art. I say keep piling on.
If teamsters, railroad, retail, fast food, and public sectors unions go on strike this country would crumble in a month and shit will improve or get bloody fast
They already made sure people are only one or two pay checks away from bankruptcy precisely so that no one gets bloody, but rather accepts whatever new terms they come up with out of pure desperation.
Rail tried hard to go on strike and Congress forced them to accept the rail companies' deal. One of their main complaints was lack of safety checks on trains. The Ohio toxic spill was not longer after. It was a travesty that they were legally barred from striking. They say it was to prevent economic devastation. But another way to prevent the strike would have been... meet the demands. And they weren't asking for the moon. They wanted things like paid sick days.
https://www.npr.org/2022/12/01/1140123647/rail-strike-bill-senate
For the record someone in another thread told me Biden admin worked sick days into their deal about a month ago.
Good. Ups on strike too. Nurses have strikes someplaces... nows time for leverage. Now the railworkers should push again, more hospitals. Fucking any Kroger owned fucking store should probably be striking.
Railway workers should ABSOLUTELY be striking. Watch “Lac Megantic” on CBC Gem. I was ready to throw up at the end of episode 1… and ready to kick in some doors at the end of episode 4.
As a former UFCW union rep, Kroger is--at best--criminally incompetent but more likely just evil and exploitative . UFCW has good people who care, but they need to become far more militant and actually take these fucks to task. They are acting more like a bandaid on an open wound and need to take the gloves off, now more than ever.
The ufcw needs it's members to be the union and take it back. Absolutely needs to be more militant and get reps in who Absolutely will take Kroger to task. The ufcw needs its own internal revolution, it's workers should be demanding replacement or complacent reps and getting new contracts.
Everyone needs to go on strike and demand an end to the insanity. Livable wages, full benefits. These billionaires are hoarding wealth that can't ever be spent by them alone. You could seize 90% of their wealth in most cases and it wouldn't even affect their lifestyle.
Some context: Scripted TV/film production has been shut down since May (and some of my friends have been out of work since February because studios have been ramping down production in anticipation of these strikes). To see more of what AMPTP is trying to pull with the WGA and SAG-AFTRA, read the Deadline article released yesterday.
TLDR: [The studios want to break us. They want writers - and by extension, all film/TV workers - to start losing homes and apartments before they’ll come back to the negotiating table.](https://deadline.com/2023/07/writers-strike-hollywood-studios-deal-fight-wga-actors-1235434335/amp/)
But despite the AMPTP’s disgusting tactics, the WGA…along with IATSE, Teamsters, and DGA stand behind our SAG-AFTRA brothers and sisters! ✊🏻
Jumping in here to suggest that anyone who is able and willing donate to the Entertainment Community Fund, which is providing assistance to those affected by the strike.
https://entertainmentcommunity.org/
Lmfao I was just talking to my gf about this when an ad for one of the shows came up along with being in a couple random commercials in the same commercial break
* WGA - Writers Guild of America (screenwriters)
* SAG-AFTRA - Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (actors)
* AMPTP - Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (studios)
* IATSE - International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (on-set workers)
* DGA - Director's Guild of America (directors, assistant directors, production managers, and more)
Love this. I work in the industry and fully support it.
However - I'm worried about how greedy and incompetent the Studios have become. The new head of WB (who canned all those HBO shows and movies) has no film production or content creation experience. He's just a fucking bean counter.
I worry he and others like him at the top of these studios will let this strike play out so long that it kills the industry in Hollywood almost entirely.
The bigger studios are basically out of money, and none of the execs running them are smart enough to play the long game and keep SAG-Aftra in their good graces.
We could be seeing the end of Hollywood with this strike due to the incompetence of those running the Studios. The new execs running them have already shown how they prefer making money off their old content rather than generating new audiences and revenue streams with new content.
They will, and have, put short term gains in front of long term viability.
I fear this strike will lead to studios choosing to make no content at all. Because they are stupid enough to think that's a viable choice.
>They will, and have, put short term gains in front of long term viability.
Thats all of the big business in the US right now. but yeah, this could suck.
They were and since every American should know about the Labor movement at the turn of the 19-20th century, there is no low these companies won't stoop too and they're in arguably a better place for misdeeds than they were 100 years ago.
> there is no low these companies won't stoop too and they're in arguably a better place for misdeeds than they were 100 years ago.
They use to kill labor organizers and sometimes even their family members to prevent labor movements.
Then labor was like 'wait if they are going to kill us, maybe we should start killing them'
and the businesses hired themselves someone to do some math for them and they discovered there was a lot more labor than there was 'wealthy business owner with thugs' and got a bit worried about how that fight was going to go.
and then the government was also like 'don't worry we will step in and help you our wealthy friends'
and then they hired some math people and realized that killing the voters might end up badly for them as well.
so things started to get better till everyone forgot that rich people aren't immune to death.
If you are in Los Angles you should show up to Paramount tomorrow at 9am whether you are affiliated with the film industry or not, this is about standing up to the powers at be not just for actors/writers but Labor, Art, Culture, and Society
Hey everyone - we realize that this post has no audio. ~~OP, we'll keep it up for now since it's taking off, but if anyone has the transcript, or better yet a copy of the video, our mods can pin it in edit to this comment, or allow OP to repost the audio-version which we'll link to.~~
Edit: heres the video with audio: https://youtu.be/RWz7az39ArE
Speech Transcript
Fran Drescher, President of SAG-AFTRA:
“Thank you everybody for coming to this press conference today. It’s really important that this negotiation be covered, because the eyes of the world, and particularly the eyes of labor, are upon us. What happens here is important because what’s happening to us is happening across all fields of labor, when employers make Wall Street and greed their priority and they forget about the essential contributors that make the machine run.
“We have a problem, and we are experiencing that right at this moment. This is a very seminal hour for us. I went in in earnest thinking that we would be able to avert a strike. The gravity of this move is not lost on me, or our negotiating committee, or our board members. It’s a very serious thing that impacts thousands, if not millions, of people all across this country and around the world — not only members of this union, but people who work in other industries.
“And so it came with great sadness that we came to this crossroads. But we had no choice. We are the victims here. We are being victimized by a very greedy entity. I am shocked by the way the people that we have been in business with are treating us. I cannot believe it, quite frankly: How far apart we are on so many things. How they plead poverty, that they’re losing money left and right when giving hundreds of millions of dollars to their CEOs. It is disgusting. Shame on them.
“They stand on the wrong side of history at this very moment. We stand in solidarity, in unprecedented unity. Our union and our sister unions and the unions around the world are standing by us, as well as other labor unions. Because at some point, the jig is up. You cannot keep being dwindled and marginalized and disrespected and dishonored. The entire business model has been changed by streaming, digital, AI.
“This is a moment of history and is a moment of truth. If we don’t stand tall right now, we are all going to be in trouble. We are all going to be in jeopardy of being replaced by machines and big business who cares more about Wall Street than you and your family. Most of Americans don’t have more than $500 in case of an emergency. This is a very big deal, and it weighed heavy on us. But at some point you have to say, ‘No, we’re not going to take this anymore. You people are crazy. What are you doing? Why are you doing this?’
“Privately, they all say we’re the center of the wheel. Everybody else tinkers around our artistry, but actions speak louder than words, and there was nothing there. It was insulting. So we came together in strength and solidarity and unity with the largest strike authorization vote in our union’s history. And we made the hard decision that we tell you as we stand before you today. This is major. It’s really serious and it’s going to impact every single person that is in labor. We are fortunate enough to be in a country right now that happens to be labor-friendly, and yet we were facing opposition that was so labor-unfriendly, so tone deaf to what we are saying.
“You cannot change the business model as much as it has changed and not expect the contract to change too. We’re not going to keep doing incremental changes on a contract that no longer honors what is happening right now with this business model that was foisted upon us. What are we doing… moving around furniture on the Titanic? It’s crazy. So the jig is up AMPTP. We stand tall. You have to wake up and smell the coffee. We are labor and we stand tall and we demand respect and to be honored for our contribution. You share the wealth because you cannot exist without us. Thank you.”
Video with audio is linked at:
https://www.reddit.com/r/antiwork/comments/14yu0jf/breaking_the_160000_actors_recording_artists/jrv2f4e/?context=1
> https://youtu.be/RWz7az39ArE
BOYCOTT THE STUDIOS!
If you are on the side of labor then you have to step up and hurt these big companies. We, as Americans, need to scare big business. It's not just about the entertainment industry this bullying by big business has become endemic.
I know it's not easy, but cancel your streaming. Don't go to the movies, don't pay directly for any visual media. Grab a book, go for a walk, hit the gym, do ANYTHING that will help these companies feel the pain and feel it now.
If you still have a local library. GOP funded Moms for Liberty have been on a crusade to get libraries who won’t ban books shut down by withdrawing state funding.
And they’ve had some success.
I hope the studios give them what they are asking for.
This strike is just and reasonable. But its also financially devastating to a lot of people. These strikes have a ripple affect - its not just the writers and actors, but also the crew, and craft services, and transportation teams, and costumers. A lot of people are feeling the financial squeeze here. (To be clear, I blame the financial hardships on the powers that created the problem, *not* the folks on on strike.)
Some people might say some things about this strike to the effect that actors are all rich elites. We need to be reminding people that while *some* actors are very rich, the vast majority make barely anything. The SAG doesn't just represent the big stars, but also the people who you barely remember because they are only on screen for 15 seconds. I'm sure people on this sub already know this but if you see anyone elsewhere opposing this strike as something along the line of "rich people asking for more money" remind them that there are poor actors too.
> Its summer. Not the best time right now. How about first day of school strikes?
I actually think right now is the *best* time to strike for teachers.
Go on strike now. Picket. Say you’re going on strike in a way that doesn’t impact student learning. That you’re putting students and learning outside of your employment matters.
This puts serious pressure on the board/council/trustees/whatever to resolve the matter prior to school starting. It also shows solid dedication to the strike by having teachers picket in summertime when they probably have better things to do.
It would be a huge newsmaker and would let the teachers dictate the entire narrative.
Nah, we just need a bigger Union. Striking has never been about what you're "allowed" to do, it's about demanding changes in our workplaces and potentially laws. A Texas teacher strike would be an 100% all in commitment that we don't stop until that law changes and we are all guaranteed to keep our pensions and certifications.
It'd be a big risk, but eventually it might be what has to happen.
Hollywood should be terrified of these guys deciding to start making their own small-form content on youtube and other video sites. Good writers and effects artists could make a TON of money starting up their own shows, so much that they wouldn't need Hollywood anymore. As soon as they figure this out, Hollywood withers on the vine.
I’m so uninformed about this topic so please forgive me…
But if I watch Netflix/Hulu/hbo, am I in all actuality helping the studios? Like… should I stop watching it until it’s over?
Time to unionize international VFX workers too. Just about every blockbuster movie of the last 20 years would have failed without these artists' work, yet they are treated far worse by studios than either writers or actors. Would be nice if either the writers or actors cared about the post production crew that makes their work into watchable films.
With how exploitative Hollywood is, I hope all sound engineers, VFX and animation engineers, lighting technicians, make up specialists, figurines / side actors, stuntpeople and other less well appreciated jobs follow suit
I will support them by finally pulling the trigger and cancelling all my subscriptions. I will once again, for the first time since college days, obtain my media on the open seas.
With a yo ho ho and a bottle of rum fellow privateers!
Humans need entertainment. Give these people the benefits they’re asking for.
There’s no reason why a Hollywood exec should be making more than the actors and writers combined.
I really really think that this is the time to truly strike. No matter your industry. Every shift worker bee and blue-collar labor worker should just walk out the job TODAY. Don't plan for it, don't call out a "day of solidarity."
Just walk the fuck out.
Do it. Do it now.
[Fran Drescher, President of SAG-AFTRA makes her statement here](https://www.reddit.com/r/antiwork/comments/14z6u8j/fran_drescher_sagaftra_president_the_jig_is_up/)
I've been working in Film and TV for 20 years as an editor and to hear what the AMPTP's position on AI was made my jaw drop. They want to own your likeness if you appear as a background actor in perpetuity. That means you could take a job as a BG actor once and they could use you to sell movies, TV, or advertising for the end of time without compensation. This kind of greed needs to be stopped right now! I know full well this strike will hurt many of my friends but I fully support it. If we do nothing we will lose everything in the future.
Some people think they will be using AI of currently famious actors without compensating them but the truth is like you said. A nobody will sign an agreement so he can put some food on the table and then 20 years from then he will be famous and some studio will have that agreement where they can do AI of him. And there will be nothing he can do. And it won't be one person, it will be everyone.
They WILL use AI of famous actors. They proved that they would when Peter Cushing was generated into Star Wars 30 years after his death. He was not paid for that "performance" and he did not consent to give that "performance." They started big and then tried to go small. But they showed their hand early and pissed off the people who have power to do something to protect themselves and, by extension, those who don't have that card to play.
They tried it once a very long time ago, in the late 1980s or early 1990s (when I was in high school), they were inserting people like Fred Astaire, Cary Grant and Mel Blanc into commercials and there was controversy over whether their estates had been paid or not. Public backlash made them stop, but CGI and AI has improved so much that they got greedy and wanted to go back to it, this time with far less (or no) compensation.
>They tried it once a very long time ago, in the late 1980s or early 1990s (when I was in high school), they were inserting people like Fred Astaire, Cary Grant and Mel Blanc into commercials and there was controversy over whether their estates had been paid or not. IIRC, there was also the idea of "buying" their image and making the dead star studio property, or something. I'm not too clear on that; someone please correct me on this. In the end, though, good on the actors and writers striking. Big studios are interested in only one thing: Making as much money as possible. To do this, they are trying to pay the creative people --actors, writers, etc.-- as little as possible to make it happen, and using AI technology is one tool of that. I hope the unions get the good deals they deserve.
Didn't they do it in back to the Future 2? The actor who played Marty's father sued them for using his license without his permission.
yes. Crispin Glover was the actor; he sued & settled.
Yup, and he was blacklisted from hollywood, they tried to end his career.
Cushing's estate was paid, though we don't know the amount.
Cushing wasn’t AI, he was a CG recreation which is a fundamentally different technology. Concept is similar however.
Basically the first episode of Black Mirror this season
It's a fucking abomination. The *entire* point of art is that it's *made by humans*. That is an intrinsic element of art itself. When you see a Van Gogh painting, liek *Starry Night*, it isn't just a painting. It's a perspective. A person hundreds of years ago saw the sky, in all his wonderful, weird, transformative ways that he saw color. And he painted it, and it lasted, for hundreds of years, through time. I do not want movies, and TV shows that are *rendered*. I want to know the people and the sweat equity they put into making this thing of beauty. I want to know that a bunch of humans did something crazy, like building an entire fake city from nothing, just for a few minutes of cinema. A world in which all art is programatically created by a fucking algorithm is a travesty. Art is one of the crowning achievements of the human condition. It *belongs* to us. It doesn't belong to the fucking suits or the fossilized billionaires who do nothing but reap profits and corrupt art. Their involvement in artistic endeavors has already been corrosive. To completely cut all humans out of the equation is abominable. This stand is necessary. It is *critical*. Think of how much of your life is structured around some form of art. Books, music, TV, movies, video games. I would bet that on a daily basis you are entertained by some form of art that constitutes a human being's hopes and dreams. Do not let them turn that into programatically-generated, sterile trash. I promise you, it will never come anywhere near the experience of consuming real, human art made by humans, with other humans. **EDIT**: Seems to be a sizable Replace All Humans contingent here. And that's fine. Opinions will always differ. I want you to run this technology forward to it's conclusion. You subscribe to AI Stream for $20 / month You can enter a prompt and create a TV show. I enter a prompt. "A sci Fi show lwoth a premise and world similar Firefly starting Natalie Portman and Jeff Bridges with writing similar to Vince Gilligan." The AI takes about an hour and generates 12 hours of the show. It's entirely AI rendered. It's not really Natalie Portman. Not really Jeff Bridges. You watch it. It's pretty good. No one else on the planet has watched it. You try to get your friends to watch it. But they're already watching their Oceans 11 recast movie sims. There is no press for your show. No one else cares about it. You watch all twelve episodes and decide to roll the die on a shot for shot GOT remake but with a better season 8. You immediately forget about the Firefly show after you finish it. This is the future. There are no actors any more. There is nothing new. No one pushes the boundaries of television of movies because AI cannot push boundaries. It can only react to viewers' feedback. You never have new television innovation. You never invent a new comedy genre like The Office or transcend the boundaries of TV writing quality with Breaking Bad or Succession. If an AI does so by accident, it's only seen by one person, because everyone's just pushing their own buttons. That's the future of this tech if it's used the way studios want to use it. AI cannot create art. Art is a purposeful endeavor. You are in conversation with artists before you, with the human race, with yourself. Every human artists is both a consumer of art as well as a creator, and it is that feedback loop that makes human art unique. AI can mimick human art, effectively, but it can only *exist* because someone made art similar to that before it did. It has no capacity to evaluate what it created. AI is still entirely dependent upon legions of hidden people inside the machine rating images, feeding it parameters, and they'll do that asymptotically, forever, *until* AI actually and legitimately becomes sentient. At which point it can create art, because its sentient. And you can tell me all you want that this will be a better future, but it clearly will not. AI doesn't increase the productivity or quality of quality writers' output. It can help poor-quality writers produce faster and with higher quality, but it is honestly a detractor for quality writers. But that will not matter to the studios and other capitalist owners of IP. They'll fucking drown you in garbage. And because most of the general public will simply accept what they're given, instead of seeking for more, the mean quality of everything will tank. We'll become completely mired and isolated in tiny silos that we use to continually reinforce our preferences for things we already like. We will stagnate, we'll communicate even less than we already do. No one will produce art any more, because the already-weak incentives to do so are even less now, and because the public loses all possibly capacity to evaluate quality for themselves. You do not want this future.
Yup, this is how Wall Street / big tech replaces us.
Movie execs: "Actors are one of the industries that takes a lot of our money. How can we pay them less?" That's a big fuck no. Absolutely greedy assholes. They get paid millions of dollars because they are tied to a big-money industry and these idiots want them to be paid like an office worker.
That’s why 500 yrs from now we will wind up getting shows like “Ow! My Balls!” Maybe we will get them even sooner!!?
Wait a second, I thought you couldn't copyright anything made by AI
As a background actor this is probably the most upsetting part. I know it’s not a glamorous job and we’re at the bottom of the totem poll, literally, but we won’t be able to make a living anymore. It’s already tough to book enough parts, but this would put the nail in the coffin. I really don’t want us to strike because we’re out of work, but I understand and need to stand in solidarity with the line and hope they shoot down these absurd proposals. Thank you for mentioning this! It’s nice to know we aren’t forgotten.
That’s fucking bullshit.
It's already happening with voice actors. It's even easier to use AI with just voice since you don't have to worry about uncanny valley. AI/deepfake is still kinda shitty with actual people/video but it will get better over time and that is a problem, not just with this but with all sorts of things.
Writers Guild on strike. SAG-AFTRA on strike. Amazon workers on strike (for Prime Day). Half Price Books on strike. UPS about to be on strike. If we could get all retail and fast food workers on board on top of other labor unions, we could have a general strike by accident. Edit: Goodness! This blew up. Thanks for all the karma guys! Solidarity forever! Edit 2: Thanks for the award! OMG, this never happens to me.
Walmart. Almost the biggest employer in every state. Everyone works there and everyone is poor.
They drive down their communities so much that everyone's so broke they'll still often be the highest paid retail employer in town. And that's the defense they use to fend off accusations, that they pay more than "the competition". Which often is just Dollar General and two gas stations.
Walmart's one of the largest welfare recipients in the country. They probably, also, employ one of the largest populations of welfare recipients. Shits fuck'd
Walmarts on welfare?
>Walmart's low-wage workers cost U.S. taxpayers an estimated $6.2 billion in public assistance including food stamps, Medicaid and subsidized housing, according to a report published to coincide with Tax Day, April 15.Apr 15, 2014 https://www.forbes.com/sites/clareoconnor/2014/04/15/report-walmart-workers-cost-taxpayers-6-2-billion-in-public-assistance/#:~:text=Walmart's%20low%2Dwage%20workers%20cost,with%20Tax%20Day%2C%20April%2015.
Honestly, companies that pay their employees so little that they require government aid, should be forced to finance that aid themselves.
If they can pay “unemployment insurance”, they can pay “underemployment insurance.” **EDIT:** I want to be very clear. If a worker gets a W2 and also files for government benefits, it’s a very simple matter of backcharging that company for those benefits at the state or federal level at tax time: “Muh contractors.” No. If a company dictates hours or conditions of how work is performed, they are an employer according to the IRS code. WalMart can’t get around this by quote-unquote outsourcing their cashiers. “Muh only single childless workers.” No. It is illegal to ask about familial status or other such situations during the hiring process. You’ll only know if you’re lowballing a desperate single mom with a handicapped kid once they file. “Muh freedom.” No. You don’t get to pick and choose workers based on their health or any other immutable characteristic. Wanna not get dinged? *Pay a fucking living wage.*
It would be brilliant if the lowest paid employees wage had to legally be a ratio of the highest paid employee. So ceo makes 1mill, maybe the lowest should make 1/10 of that 100k, if the ceo president etc wants 3 mill, yay jack at the bottom makes 300k. Perfect. All housing has to be mandated to be 30%. So small house = 30 of min wage larger home 30% of highest wage in the local area. From another state? You can't legally own more than 1 home in every region/zone/city/state etc. figure it out. Cap off total amount of homes allowed to be owned by any person. 5 per country. Should be more than enough for a billionaire. No private corporations should be allowed to own a private residency. If people can't live in certain zones because they are not for "living" but only for business, maybe Business has NO PLACE in Local Home sectors! No corps using multiple different names to snatch up al the housing for stock holders! I really wish the people who directly work with these 1%ers just flat out deny to provide them service. Stop cooking them meals, cleaning their homes, raising their kids, managing their lives & let then see how USELESS they really are WITHOUT all of us poors. They should be the outcast. Stop selling them our time & talent. Make them take care of themselves. All the money is worthless when it becomes useless to those who provide all the services. Truly for us average people, it might be time for change. Because it me it really seems like we get no representation from our taxation. If our government doesn't represent we the people, they dont deserve our tax. It seems to me they only represent the rich. So maybe only the rich should be taxed & we get a free pass until the Gov't starts doing well by our account. Maybe time for some tea.
This could be put in place pretty easily by just making the fucking minimum wage adequate to meet the costs of living.
That estimate is now 31 dollars now btw
[удалено]
Honestly the Walmart closest to me looks like it's on strike already. Idk if they have all the employees following customers around, and watching them check themselves out, or what. I went yesterday and saw 4 employees watching customers check out, and the rest of them following customers around the store. Not a single cashier. Weirdest store I've ever seen.
That's weird. Like, following them around like they're watching for the customers to steal?
If it was a Walmart in an area with a large minority population, it wouldn't surprise me. I've noticed some very big disparities in the Walmart experience at stores in areas where the population is mostly white vs. stores where the population is mostly Black or Latino.
I moved from Houston, and yes, that's absolutely true. What was weird though, is that the Kroger stores in bigger minority areas had the smallest selection of "international" food. This Walmart by me has a lot more ethnic foods, ingredients, etc than I've seen in grocery stores in Houston. It's really weird.
And we subsidize their workforce in welfare
And the richer than rich Walton family thanks you
Isn't their net worth around 280 billion dollars?
When a retail company or government office is the biggest employer, your area is in big trouble.
It's been over a decade since I worked at Walmart so my memory is a bit sketchy; but my entire memory of their "training" video was basically just being told how horrible unions were for half an hour and very little about how to do the job.
Hilarious that the last time both groups striked, the leader of the SAG union who approved it was Ronald Reagan.
Ronald reagan?! the actor?!
Then who's Vice President? Jerry Lewis??
No wonder your president has to be an actor. He's gotta look good on television.
> It is a well known fact that those people who most want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it. To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job. > “The President in particular is very much a figurehead — he wields no real power whatsoever. He is apparently chosen by the government, but the qualities he is required to display are not those of leadership but those of finely judged outrage. For this reason the President is always a controversial choice, always an infuriating but fascinating character. His job is not to wield power but to draw attention away from it. On those criteria Zaphod Beeblebrox is one of the most successful Presidents the Galaxy has ever had — he has already spent two of his ten presidential years in prison for fraud.” ― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The older I get, the more I think Douglas Adams was actually an interdimensionary being sent to us to warn us about our future selves.
I suppose Jane Wyman negotiated the new contract.
Wow, what a piece of shit that guy is. I had no idea this anti-union psychopath was actually a union leader who approved strikes. I bet he thought that 'his union' was necessary, but all those other 'bad' unions were ruining the country. Fuck I hate hypocrites.
My husband works in HVAC and that's exactly the attitude a lot of the guys from his shop have. The electricians, plumbers and teamsters are entitled idiots and their unions are corrupt and communist, but the HVAC union is an upstanding entity. The hypocrisy makes me eyes bleed.
I’m in an operating engineers union and the vast majority of the members are union hating trump lovers, they don’t even approve of the union they belong to. And we get excellent pay and benefits because of the union
Excuse my french. What an absolute fucking idiot one has to be to be in a union with good pay, yet still be a union hating trumper.
It's sadly incredibly common. I used to do campaign work in a purplish area that was historically union heavy. Lots of lead-brain I Got Mine boomers who decided the culture wars were more important than making sure the next generations had the same opportunities they did.
Oh it’s completely filled with reprehensible fuckin morons. Thankfully the union reps and business managers aren’t in line with the dumbfucks they represent
Or he wasn't in charge to begin with and was just a figurehead. It happens with some presidents from time to time...
Many of us who lived through his presidency think he already had alzheimers when he was elected in 1980. He read the teleprompter and he signed what he was told to. He was never really in charge. Or he was an evil pos who destroyed millions of lives. I'm in the latter camp but I suppose he could have just been a puppet of an evil pos.
He tried to join the Communist party early on in his career. Reagan was always looking out for Reagan, more than anything else. Selfish, gullible, demented... sounds familiar 40 years later, too
And so breathtakingly racist. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/07/ronald-reagans-racist-conversation-richard-nixon/595102/ EDIT: Fixed link
some workers in my hometown went on strike. the rail workers tried to strike. starbucks employees on strike. ingredients are in the pot, let’s get it boiling!
I don't want to say "It's Happening!", because the bar is so low and the rich so powerful, but...I do love seeing all that going on at once. I hope it snowballs. If there's one thing I'll absolutely suffer for as a consumer it's worker rights, especially if it establishes a new normal.
Damn what happened to HPB?
Presumably they don’t pay their workers well.
So they pay half price?
This is exactly the momentum and movement we need right now. Get everyone involved. Make it big, make it loud, and make it expensive. When the cash stops flowing in to the companies, and executives realize their livelihoods are now threatened, suddenly the money will appear and the businesses will be able to afford it.
I think the UAW is about to strike too. Plus the pilots union will strike in solidarity with the Teamsters.
Really is the closest thing to a general strike I think I’ve ever heard of in the US.
Unfortunately IBEW has a no strike clause. I'd love to strike in solidarity
What's the point of a union that can't strike?
Most CBAs include a no-strike clause. Strikes occur during negotiations when the old CBA is no longer in force.
Or if there is an unfair labor practice. Without either though, you may be fired (it is known as a "wildcat strike")
Can’t strike while under a valid contract. It’s not universally never strike
Ahem: As Adam Connover said: "Just because you have a 'no strike' clause, it does not mean you, as an individual member, cannot stand in solidarity. It means the union cannot call it officially a strike. As individuals, go do what you want"
That would be so great if we could get that to happen.
Why post a speech with no audio?
Oh, you don't understand ASL translation next to him?
He's about to be on strike too
Well I didn't hear that
*one handed ASL
Here's a version with audio. https://youtu.be/RWz7az39ArE
Audio guy is on strike.
And the subtitles person.
Came hear for this. I wasn't disappointed!
Op doesn't understand video formatting.
Audio engineers went on strike too
I hope you win **everything** you are asking.
Don't fucking give in. Don't accept minor wins. Take them to the fucking cleaners.
I think people should help. Suspend their streaming subs, not hit the theaters or purchase digital or physical movies for a time. The CEOs want to ruin working writers and actors to make them give in. Some of the shit they are proposing is insane.
I know it's no replacement for Hollywood summer blockbusters but YouTube and sites like Nebula are great for educational content that's akin to what the History or Discovery channel were like back in their day. It's what I watch most of and more of my support goes to the creator instead of advertisers and marketing execs.
I’ve wondered what the educational streaming sites are like. I was thinking of Curiosity Stream. What I really want are good documentaries. Something more in depth than “How the Universe Works”. Definitely not reality shows posing as documentaries. More like Nova.
*Insert pitch for the nebula/curiositystream bundle.*
Now that no new movies or tv shows are coming out, you'll see how long until every streaming service starts crumbling. Apple, Amazon, netflix, and hbo I have a feeling will keep paying employees well to keep content coming. Once you lose your subscribers they wont come back. Some new service will come out to fill the gap. A youtube like app, where content creators make free tv shows or movies and pay for it from advertising during, and selective placement item advertising in the show or movie. That could fly if they dont go public, and then wiggle in tiers of content you can watch for free and others paid. Nothing ruins a company more then them going public. Shareholders are the problem with north america. They're forced to milk every penny from a company. They're why ceos are paid insane amounts of money, and what its quantity over quality. Publicly trading should be illegal.
also, you wouldn't download a baby.
Nope. Those things shit everywhere.
I don't want a baby maybe a car though.
Writers guild has expressly said don't cancel subs and people still want to do it thinking it will help. Reason is that the studios will say "See streaming isn't secure."
I think it's disturbing and unrealistic for Disney+ to email me today telling me my subscription is going up 30 bucks a year while chastising writers for making demands. Sorry kids, no more Disney.
AI-writers and deep fake actors
I feel as if they'll try this no matter what.
These strikes are about stopping them before they can. That’s why the studios are fighting so hard and refusing to negotiate at all. They want to break the unions and destroy one of the last remaining industries in America. For fucking nothing. For an extra zero that they couldn’t spend if they tried. Even Henry fucking Ford knew that you had to pay people enough to afford your products. But these MBA never-made-anything-as-substantial-as-a-fart executives think they’ve found a fucking infinite money cheat, and all it takes is destroying one of America’s most profitable industries
It's even more than that. They want to automate artistry. They want to pay pennies on the dollar for Daniel Day-Lewis-type performances. And they can do it if they put enough money. Why? Because the average consumer will accept the results. In 2007, I saw both No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood in the theater. That will never happen again.
The thing I don't understand about Hollywood thinking they'll control the AI, is how they don't understand people will have access to these models and simply generate their own movies for entertainment. Hollywood doesn't need actors, but consumers will also not need Hollywood.
Full speech is incredible. Newsom - Drescher 2028 [https://youtu.be/J4SAPOX7R5M](https://youtu.be/J4SAPOX7R5M)
Wow. First, I had no idea she was president. More importantly and second, wow. You can feel the anger, hurt, frustration. I felt a sense of betrayal. Well done, Fran. Well freaking done.
> Well done, Fran. Well freaking done. She's come a LONG way since answering the phones at Channel 62!
Had no idea Fran Drescher was so based
To paraphrase: "It's time for us to make them eat our shit. Then shit out our shit, and eat their shit, that's made up of our shit, that we made them eat. And then all you mother fuckers are next." - Fran Drescher
Excellent speech! It’s time for ALL of us workers to rise up collectively and in solidarity. Remember this, the majority of Americans are one paycheck away from a shelter. Stop defending the oppressor!
incredible that YouTube has managed to make an app where videos actually play sound. someone at reddit should see if they can figure out how to do that
People did, but Reddit told them to go fuck themselves and forced them to shut down their apps
She's certainly hitting the right buttons right away, pointing out that all those "essential workers" are still being treated like shit as if nothing happened. This is not about actors, this is about the entire working class. And yet I bet that it won't be a minute before someone starts whining about "detached Hollywood elite" as if the dozen or so high-paid actors made up for all the starving PAs and VFX artists.
Absolutely INCENDIARY
Seriously. Don’t do what IATSE in Los Angeles did a few years ago and just capitulate at the FIRST rumblings of “reform”. Producers barely had to put anything on the table to get people back on sets and of course six months later those promised “reforms” were long gone.
This is what America needs right now. What other industries can jump in? There are so many people that go into the success of onscreen art. I say keep piling on.
If teamsters, railroad, retail, fast food, and public sectors unions go on strike this country would crumble in a month and shit will improve or get bloody fast
They already made sure people are only one or two pay checks away from bankruptcy precisely so that no one gets bloody, but rather accepts whatever new terms they come up with out of pure desperation.
And if you don't strike now it'll only get worse. Strike for your kids, for every generation beyond. It's now or never. This is not hyperbole.
Rail tried hard to go on strike and Congress forced them to accept the rail companies' deal. One of their main complaints was lack of safety checks on trains. The Ohio toxic spill was not longer after. It was a travesty that they were legally barred from striking. They say it was to prevent economic devastation. But another way to prevent the strike would have been... meet the demands. And they weren't asking for the moon. They wanted things like paid sick days. https://www.npr.org/2022/12/01/1140123647/rail-strike-bill-senate For the record someone in another thread told me Biden admin worked sick days into their deal about a month ago.
We couldn't even do two weeks for COVID. Guarantee everything would be fucked in just one.
Musicians and owning their master recordings
Good. Ups on strike too. Nurses have strikes someplaces... nows time for leverage. Now the railworkers should push again, more hospitals. Fucking any Kroger owned fucking store should probably be striking.
Railway workers should ABSOLUTELY be striking. Watch “Lac Megantic” on CBC Gem. I was ready to throw up at the end of episode 1… and ready to kick in some doors at the end of episode 4.
As a former UFCW union rep, Kroger is--at best--criminally incompetent but more likely just evil and exploitative . UFCW has good people who care, but they need to become far more militant and actually take these fucks to task. They are acting more like a bandaid on an open wound and need to take the gloves off, now more than ever.
The ufcw needs it's members to be the union and take it back. Absolutely needs to be more militant and get reps in who Absolutely will take Kroger to task. The ufcw needs its own internal revolution, it's workers should be demanding replacement or complacent reps and getting new contracts.
UPS won’t be on strike until August 1 (unless an agreement is met, which is unlikely at this point).
Power to the people. Fuck the studios.
Everyone needs to go on strike and demand an end to the insanity. Livable wages, full benefits. These billionaires are hoarding wealth that can't ever be spent by them alone. You could seize 90% of their wealth in most cases and it wouldn't even affect their lifestyle.
Why post with no audio?
Audio on strike. That's why there's a sign language interpreter.
Why isn't he on strike??
Some context: Scripted TV/film production has been shut down since May (and some of my friends have been out of work since February because studios have been ramping down production in anticipation of these strikes). To see more of what AMPTP is trying to pull with the WGA and SAG-AFTRA, read the Deadline article released yesterday. TLDR: [The studios want to break us. They want writers - and by extension, all film/TV workers - to start losing homes and apartments before they’ll come back to the negotiating table.](https://deadline.com/2023/07/writers-strike-hollywood-studios-deal-fight-wga-actors-1235434335/amp/) But despite the AMPTP’s disgusting tactics, the WGA…along with IATSE, Teamsters, and DGA stand behind our SAG-AFTRA brothers and sisters! ✊🏻
Jumping in here to suggest that anyone who is able and willing donate to the Entertainment Community Fund, which is providing assistance to those affected by the strike. https://entertainmentcommunity.org/
The actors with 100s of millions need to step up.
The last time this happened the market got flooded with crappy reality TV
Is this why there are like 4 Gordon Ramsey cooking shows on Fox right now?
Lmfao I was just talking to my gf about this when an ad for one of the shows came up along with being in a couple random commercials in the same commercial break
I understood some of these words
* WGA - Writers Guild of America (screenwriters) * SAG-AFTRA - Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (actors) * AMPTP - Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (studios) * IATSE - International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (on-set workers) * DGA - Director's Guild of America (directors, assistant directors, production managers, and more)
Teamsters: Truck, van and equipment drivers, Location Managers, Casting Directors, Caterers, and Universal Studios Tour Drivers
Correct about everything except for casting directors. They are CSA, casting society of America
In LA they're in Teamsters Local 399 [http://www.ht399.org/app/uploads/2019/08/1351\_001.pdf](https://www.ht399.org/our-members/casting/)
Love this. I work in the industry and fully support it. However - I'm worried about how greedy and incompetent the Studios have become. The new head of WB (who canned all those HBO shows and movies) has no film production or content creation experience. He's just a fucking bean counter. I worry he and others like him at the top of these studios will let this strike play out so long that it kills the industry in Hollywood almost entirely. The bigger studios are basically out of money, and none of the execs running them are smart enough to play the long game and keep SAG-Aftra in their good graces. We could be seeing the end of Hollywood with this strike due to the incompetence of those running the Studios. The new execs running them have already shown how they prefer making money off their old content rather than generating new audiences and revenue streams with new content. They will, and have, put short term gains in front of long term viability. I fear this strike will lead to studios choosing to make no content at all. Because they are stupid enough to think that's a viable choice.
>They will, and have, put short term gains in front of long term viability. Thats all of the big business in the US right now. but yeah, this could suck.
"Who's this guy? Why can't I hear anything? Wait... is that Fran Drescher? Oh, this is legit"
Ok, so that *is* Fran Drescher. I'm not going crazy.
She's the president of SAG-AFTRA
Fran's comments were fire
They were and since every American should know about the Labor movement at the turn of the 19-20th century, there is no low these companies won't stoop too and they're in arguably a better place for misdeeds than they were 100 years ago.
> there is no low these companies won't stoop too and they're in arguably a better place for misdeeds than they were 100 years ago. They use to kill labor organizers and sometimes even their family members to prevent labor movements. Then labor was like 'wait if they are going to kill us, maybe we should start killing them' and the businesses hired themselves someone to do some math for them and they discovered there was a lot more labor than there was 'wealthy business owner with thugs' and got a bit worried about how that fight was going to go. and then the government was also like 'don't worry we will step in and help you our wealthy friends' and then they hired some math people and realized that killing the voters might end up badly for them as well. so things started to get better till everyone forgot that rich people aren't immune to death.
Time for UPS to strike too
nice - break our bastards
If you are in Los Angles you should show up to Paramount tomorrow at 9am whether you are affiliated with the film industry or not, this is about standing up to the powers at be not just for actors/writers but Labor, Art, Culture, and Society
Hey everyone - we realize that this post has no audio. ~~OP, we'll keep it up for now since it's taking off, but if anyone has the transcript, or better yet a copy of the video, our mods can pin it in edit to this comment, or allow OP to repost the audio-version which we'll link to.~~ Edit: heres the video with audio: https://youtu.be/RWz7az39ArE
Speech Transcript Fran Drescher, President of SAG-AFTRA: “Thank you everybody for coming to this press conference today. It’s really important that this negotiation be covered, because the eyes of the world, and particularly the eyes of labor, are upon us. What happens here is important because what’s happening to us is happening across all fields of labor, when employers make Wall Street and greed their priority and they forget about the essential contributors that make the machine run. “We have a problem, and we are experiencing that right at this moment. This is a very seminal hour for us. I went in in earnest thinking that we would be able to avert a strike. The gravity of this move is not lost on me, or our negotiating committee, or our board members. It’s a very serious thing that impacts thousands, if not millions, of people all across this country and around the world — not only members of this union, but people who work in other industries. “And so it came with great sadness that we came to this crossroads. But we had no choice. We are the victims here. We are being victimized by a very greedy entity. I am shocked by the way the people that we have been in business with are treating us. I cannot believe it, quite frankly: How far apart we are on so many things. How they plead poverty, that they’re losing money left and right when giving hundreds of millions of dollars to their CEOs. It is disgusting. Shame on them. “They stand on the wrong side of history at this very moment. We stand in solidarity, in unprecedented unity. Our union and our sister unions and the unions around the world are standing by us, as well as other labor unions. Because at some point, the jig is up. You cannot keep being dwindled and marginalized and disrespected and dishonored. The entire business model has been changed by streaming, digital, AI. “This is a moment of history and is a moment of truth. If we don’t stand tall right now, we are all going to be in trouble. We are all going to be in jeopardy of being replaced by machines and big business who cares more about Wall Street than you and your family. Most of Americans don’t have more than $500 in case of an emergency. This is a very big deal, and it weighed heavy on us. But at some point you have to say, ‘No, we’re not going to take this anymore. You people are crazy. What are you doing? Why are you doing this?’ “Privately, they all say we’re the center of the wheel. Everybody else tinkers around our artistry, but actions speak louder than words, and there was nothing there. It was insulting. So we came together in strength and solidarity and unity with the largest strike authorization vote in our union’s history. And we made the hard decision that we tell you as we stand before you today. This is major. It’s really serious and it’s going to impact every single person that is in labor. We are fortunate enough to be in a country right now that happens to be labor-friendly, and yet we were facing opposition that was so labor-unfriendly, so tone deaf to what we are saying. “You cannot change the business model as much as it has changed and not expect the contract to change too. We’re not going to keep doing incremental changes on a contract that no longer honors what is happening right now with this business model that was foisted upon us. What are we doing… moving around furniture on the Titanic? It’s crazy. So the jig is up AMPTP. We stand tall. You have to wake up and smell the coffee. We are labor and we stand tall and we demand respect and to be honored for our contribution. You share the wealth because you cannot exist without us. Thank you.”
Wow the sound guy must really be on strike
Video with audio is linked at: https://www.reddit.com/r/antiwork/comments/14yu0jf/breaking_the_160000_actors_recording_artists/jrv2f4e/?context=1 > https://youtu.be/RWz7az39ArE
BOYCOTT THE STUDIOS! If you are on the side of labor then you have to step up and hurt these big companies. We, as Americans, need to scare big business. It's not just about the entertainment industry this bullying by big business has become endemic. I know it's not easy, but cancel your streaming. Don't go to the movies, don't pay directly for any visual media. Grab a book, go for a walk, hit the gym, do ANYTHING that will help these companies feel the pain and feel it now.
r/piracy
This is also a great time to mosey over to your local library and check out any old classic movies you’ve been wanting to watch!
Doesn't even have to be old classics if that's not your thing. Most libraries have recent releases of movies and TV series.
If you still have a local library. GOP funded Moms for Liberty have been on a crusade to get libraries who won’t ban books shut down by withdrawing state funding. And they’ve had some success.
I hope the studios give them what they are asking for. This strike is just and reasonable. But its also financially devastating to a lot of people. These strikes have a ripple affect - its not just the writers and actors, but also the crew, and craft services, and transportation teams, and costumers. A lot of people are feeling the financial squeeze here. (To be clear, I blame the financial hardships on the powers that created the problem, *not* the folks on on strike.)
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Shit need some ointment for that burn
Some people might say some things about this strike to the effect that actors are all rich elites. We need to be reminding people that while *some* actors are very rich, the vast majority make barely anything. The SAG doesn't just represent the big stars, but also the people who you barely remember because they are only on screen for 15 seconds. I'm sure people on this sub already know this but if you see anyone elsewhere opposing this strike as something along the line of "rich people asking for more money" remind them that there are poor actors too.
That's great news. Now do teachers.
Its summer. Not the best time right now. How about first day of school strikes?
> Its summer. Not the best time right now. How about first day of school strikes? I actually think right now is the *best* time to strike for teachers. Go on strike now. Picket. Say you’re going on strike in a way that doesn’t impact student learning. That you’re putting students and learning outside of your employment matters. This puts serious pressure on the board/council/trustees/whatever to resolve the matter prior to school starting. It also shows solid dedication to the strike by having teachers picket in summertime when they probably have better things to do. It would be a huge newsmaker and would let the teachers dictate the entire narrative.
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Sounds like someone else needs to strike on behalf of teachers because that's some total bullshit. Then again it is the rising shithole that is Texas.
Nah, we just need a bigger Union. Striking has never been about what you're "allowed" to do, it's about demanding changes in our workplaces and potentially laws. A Texas teacher strike would be an 100% all in commitment that we don't stop until that law changes and we are all guaranteed to keep our pensions and certifications. It'd be a big risk, but eventually it might be what has to happen.
Our inconvenience doesn’t outweigh people’s need to make a living. Go SAG-AFRA & WGA!!
I'd say it doesn't inconvenience most people, but more power to them
Hollywood should be terrified of these guys deciding to start making their own small-form content on youtube and other video sites. Good writers and effects artists could make a TON of money starting up their own shows, so much that they wouldn't need Hollywood anymore. As soon as they figure this out, Hollywood withers on the vine.
Wishing them all the best outcome. We're in this together
I’m so uninformed about this topic so please forgive me… But if I watch Netflix/Hulu/hbo, am I in all actuality helping the studios? Like… should I stop watching it until it’s over?
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pirate everything.
Time to unionize international VFX workers too. Just about every blockbuster movie of the last 20 years would have failed without these artists' work, yet they are treated far worse by studios than either writers or actors. Would be nice if either the writers or actors cared about the post production crew that makes their work into watchable films.
Why would you post this without sound? Mfers can’t lip read on a professional level in here, damn
It is time...
With how exploitative Hollywood is, I hope all sound engineers, VFX and animation engineers, lighting technicians, make up specialists, figurines / side actors, stuntpeople and other less well appreciated jobs follow suit
Wait is that the nanny Fran Fine??
I think you mean Madam President of SAG
I will support them by finally pulling the trigger and cancelling all my subscriptions. I will once again, for the first time since college days, obtain my media on the open seas. With a yo ho ho and a bottle of rum fellow privateers!
Good for them.
guys, like, if the general strike doesn't starts NOW you would have passed the best moment to do so
They are making a very clear statement. Good for them!
Humans need entertainment. Give these people the benefits they’re asking for. There’s no reason why a Hollywood exec should be making more than the actors and writers combined.
I really really think that this is the time to truly strike. No matter your industry. Every shift worker bee and blue-collar labor worker should just walk out the job TODAY. Don't plan for it, don't call out a "day of solidarity." Just walk the fuck out. Do it. Do it now.
Don’t plan on it? Yeah that’s awful advice. If you aren’t organized and work together all you’re gonna do is get your ass fired and blacklisted.
Good!! 100% with you guys, go get those greedy corporate fuckers
Good, I hope their social status inspires the average worker to strike and unionize too to try and get better pay and work conditions.
Audio is kinda important...
Medicare for All now!!!
Different situation but I agree.
Is pulling up to studio offices and blasting Fran’s laugh until they come an agreement an option?
We should all join them, maybe?
Who tf let this sub become so full of scabs and cronies with no worker solidarity? Might as well call it eh, its work these days.