{"id":15668,"date":"2023-07-19T05:01:51","date_gmt":"2023-07-19T10:01:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=15668"},"modified":"2023-07-19T05:01:54","modified_gmt":"2023-07-19T10:01:54","slug":"actors-and-writers-on-strike-are-united-and-determined-in-the-face-of-a-long-summer-standoff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=15668","title":{"rendered":"Actors and writers on strike are united and determined in the face of a long summer standoff"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 Solidarity and stamina were picket-line themes Monday as striking screenwriters and actors<\/u><\/a> in New York and Los Angeles braced for a long, hot summer standoff<\/u><\/a> with studios.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Picketers emphasized unity between writers, who have been on the lines for more than two months, and performers, who are only on Day 2 of striking \u2014 as well as camaraderie between highly paid actors and those with spare screen credits who struggle to scrape by.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kevin Bacon, who was among the famous faces picketing among unknowns outside Viacom headquarters in New York, said his presence was about \u201cseeing people out here and being aware that not all actors are super high paid actors, that they are working class people who are trying to make a living.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One such working actor, Whitney Morgan Cox, who has appeared on the CBS series \u201cCriminal Minds,\u201d said it was \u201cpowerful\u201d to see writers and actors come together who don\u2019t often work simultaneously in production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think people necessarily realize the energy that writers and actors have,\u201d Cox said outside Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California, \u201cand the stamina, and our ability to commit, that\u2019s all our entire job is about is just committing to something and following through. So it\u2019s been a really beautiful sense of community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>Leaders of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) voted unanimously<\/u><\/a> on Thursday that when their contract expired they would start striking<\/u><\/a> the following day, joining the Writers Guild of America, who walked out on May 2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been amazing to be out here now that we have the second wind of SAG members coming,\u201d said Paul Scheer, who was already striking as a writer, and is now doing the same as an actor, outside Netflix headquarters in Hollywood. \u201cI\u2019m on strike two times, which means I have to walk double the steps, which is hard, but I\u2019m willing to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Monday temperatures were in the high 80s in New York, and well above 90 degrees F (32 C) in parts of Los Angeles, where some afternoon pickets were called off because of the extreme heat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A union rally was planned for later in the day in Atlanta, where many productions have moved in recent years because of tax breaks and other lower costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The issue also came up in Washington, when White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre responded to a question during Monday\u2019s briefing about whether the Biden administration supports the aims of striking entertainment workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe president believes all workers, including the writers, including the actors, they deserve fair pay. And they deserve fair benefits,\u201d Jean-Pierre said. \u201cWe sincerely hope that both actors and writers strikes get resolved, and that the parties come together and have a mutually beneficial agreement as soon as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While actors and writers also emphasized the need to reach a deal, few believed any such agreement would be coming soon, given the vast distance between the unions and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers \u2014 which represents studios, streamers and production companies in negotiations that are currently neither happening nor planned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key issues for both unions include residual payments, which have been nearly wiped out by the switch to the streaming system, and the unpaid use of their work and likeness by artificial intelligence avatars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The AMPTP said it has offered fair terms on those and other issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese things are things that I personally can negotiate for,\u201d Bacon said. \u201cBut I\u2019m here for the working class, middle class part of our union who needs these basic provisions in the basic contract.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Associated Press Writers John Carucci in New York, Zeke Miller in Washington, Krysta Fauria in Los Angeles, and Leslie Ambriz in Burbank, California contributed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apnews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 Solidarity and stamina were picket-line themes Monday as striking screenwriters and actors in New York and Los Angeles braced for a long, hot summer standoff with studios. Picketers emphasized unity between writers, who have been on the lines for more than two months, and performers, who are only on Day 2 of striking \u2014 as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":15669,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1154],"tags":[8054,1946,3150,7866,5552],"class_list":["post-15668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending","tag-hollywood-actors","tag-pay","tag-strikes","tag-working-conditions","tag-writers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15668"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15668\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15670,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15668\/revisions\/15670"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}