by David Slifer

Everyone knows about film and television. We all have favorite movies or a show that can always give us a good laugh. In many ways though, this form of entertainment is being put to a halt. There has been an actors’ strike going on for most of 2023 called the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) strike. Alongside this, there was also a writers’ strike called the Writer’s Guild of America strike. In this article, I will be focusing on the actors’ strike as the writers’ strike ended on September 27. 

You may think that an actors’ strike are simply wanting for more money. Some people assume this and it results in them getting annoyed, accusing the actors of being greedy. Many actors are currently fighting to keep their jobs due to the development of artificial intelligence. A.I. has evolved a lot over the last few years, and the entertainment industry wants to take advantage of this. Specifically, many production companies are wanting to use A.I. to limit the number of humans on screen.  

The actors’ strike has been going on for almost four months now and a big change has occurred in the negotiation process. As of October 12, multiple heads in the entertainment industry have pulled away and are unfortunately no longer negotiating with SAG-AFTRA. The organization has proposed many offers and counters, but the CEOs are not budging. A statement was recently posted by SAG about this issue, “We have made big, meaningful counters on our end, including completely transforming our revenue share proposal, which would cost companies less than 57 cents per subscriber each year. Unfortunately, they have rejected our proposals and refused to counter with anything.”  

The work that actors do are not easy yet their jobs are being threatened and could possibly be taken away. Let us give support to the actors’ strike and hope for the best.