The Minnesota AFL-CIO declared SAG-AFTRA Solidarity Day at the Labor Pavilion on Labor Day.
Minnesotans will rally in solidarity with striking film and TV actors this Saturday in St. Paul’s Rice Park, supporting their union’s fight for fair compensation and worker protections in the film industry.
The 1 p.m. rally is sponsored by the SAG-AFTRA Twin Cities Local, which is keeping a close eye on contract negotiations the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), in anticipation of Minnesota luring more film production work with a newly expanded tax credit.
“We will not let them take us backwards,” SAG-AFTRA Twin Cities Local President Casey Lewis said of the contract campaign that covers roughly 160,000 performers nationwide.
Actors and performers began their strike against the large production companies July 13, joining members of the Writers Guild (WGA), who began their strike more than two months earlier. (The WGA reached a tentative agreement on new contracts with the AMPTP earlier this week.)
The two unions had not been on strike at the same time in over 60 years, but writers and performers are looking to address similar issues in contract negotiations this year. Their pay has failed to keep up with inflation, and residual payments are down as more viewers get their content through streaming services.
Lewis said film industry moguls are trying to “erase how the industry has run for decades, with actors and performers sharing in the success of movies and programs” that enjoy extended success with viewers.
“We fought hard for residual payments,” he added. “We rely on them and won’t give them up. You can’t take us backwards because the streaming model has moved our viewing habits forward.”
Artificial intelligence also poses a threat to film industry workers. Their unions are seeking protections that would prevent production companies from substituting computer-generated scripts and images for real writers and actors.
“A fair contract means you don’t get to capture our work and capture our likeness and then replicate performances without consent and compensation,” Lewis said. “AI may be moving forward, but you are not taking us back as if our union protections never existed.”
Members of the SAG-AFTRA Twin Cities Local – (L to R) Matt Roy, Tammara Melloy, Matt Saxe and Laurie Flanigan Hegge – carried their union’s banner in the State Fair’s daily parade on Labor Day.
Polls show a strong majority of Americans want to see striking writers and actors make gains at the bargaining table. A Gallup survey in August found Americans sympathize more with the writers than production studios by a split of 72% to 19%. Support for actors and performers came in at 67% to 24%.
Bethany Winkels, executive director of the Minnesota AFL-CIO, said Americans recognize that actors and writers are standing up to corporate greed.
“At the end of the day, every single union member knows that when we stand together, we can demand a fair return on our work, we can push back against exploitation and we can have an economy and a society where folks can live and work with dignity and respect,” she said. “And that is happening on the front lines, on every picket line that SAG-AFTRA has.
“They are going to keep fighting, and we are going to have their back.”
The strike has not halted production of any films in Minnesota, but local SAG-AFTRA members anticipate more work opportunities as production companies take advantage of the state’s newly expanded tax credit, supported by lawmakers in each of the past two legislative sessions.
“We fought so hard for these improvements, and these are the jobs Twin Cities Local members have been waiting for, for decades,” Lewis said.
– Michael Moore, Union Advocate editor
Union Advocate 