The national board of SAG-AFTRA has approved the union’s tentative deal with US studios and streamers and revealed some details of the four-year agreement.
The agreement will now be submitted to the Guild’s full membership with a board recommendation to ratify.
The agreement, said SAG-AFTRA in a statement, “builds on our existing guidelines around AI including new provisions strengthening consent and compensation and establishing new and enhanced guardrails on synthetics.”
Among the AI guidelines, said the Guild, are “agreement to a principle strongly favoring human performances” and a provision that “producers do not intend to use a synthetic in a human role that would otherwise be performed by a human unless the synthetic brings ‘significant additional value’ to the motion picture.”
On pay, the deal calls for minimum wage rates to increase by 3% annually (compounded) from July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2030.
On health and insurance, another key issue in talks between the Guild and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), the deal contains a commitment to merge the SAG-Producers pension plan and the AFTRA retirement fund into a single plan with increased contribution rates and improved benefits for both sets of participants by January 1, 2028.
SAG-AFTRA president Sean Astin commented: “In my view, this is a very strong deal that builds on the gains of 2023. It is a structural agreement that confronts the realities of streaming economics, artificial intelligence, digital identity, pension stability, data transparency, and the increasingly fragmented nature of employment in our business.”
SAG-AFTRA national executive director and chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland added: “This contract is a testament to the incredible unity and determination of our members, and I am proud to deliver an agreement that results in meaningful gains across the board, from benefit plans to artificial intelligence to residuals, and beyond.”
No comments yet