The end is finally here — now actors can put down their picket signs and go back to work.
Members of the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television & Radio Artists voted to ratify a new three-year contract, ending the guild’s longest strike in its history.
In the end, the two sides dropped their most extreme demands: The ad industry dropped its demand that actors give up pay-per-play for network residuals, and the unions dropped their demand that the industry give them pay-per-play for basic cable ads.
The unions, however, did get a substantial increase in the cable buyout. Under the old contract, actors got $1,014 for the unlimited use of their ads during each 13-week cable cycle. Effective immediately, that will go up to $1,390, up again to $1,706 a year from now and up to $2,460 in two years.
After the end of the second year of the contract, actors’ cable residuals will have increased by 143%.
The new commercials pact, which ended a six-month strike, was ratified in a 41,064-1,623 vote. Only 42,768 — or 34% — of the 124,724 ballots mailed to SAG and AFTRA members were returned.
Other highlights include a 4.4 percent increase in session fees, which brings principal on-camera performers’ session fees up to $500. The unions also got improved payments for the reuse of commercials on Spanish-language programs, small pay raises for extras and a boost in employer contributions to the unions’ pension and health plans.
