SAG-AFTRA & AMPTP Reach Tentative Deal, Ending Actors’ Strike After 118 Days

Kelli Boyle
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Ben Whitehair, Frances Fisher, SAG President Fran Drescher, Joely Fisher, National Executive Director, and SAG-AFTRA members are seen as SAG-AFTRA calls for a strike
Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

After 118 days, SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP have reached a tentative agreement, bringing forth the end of the actors’ strike.

A tentative agreement for a new three-year contract was approved in a unanimous vote by the SAG-AFTRA TV/Theatrical Committee on Wednesday, November 8. The work stoppage will end on Thursday, November 9 at 12:01 a.m. PT, and the guild’s national board will vote to approve the tentative deal on Friday, November 10. If the national board approves the deal, the eligible members of the guild (which boasts over 160,000 performers) will vote to ratify the agreement, and people will be able to return to work quickly if/when it’s approved.

SAG-AFTRA issued a public statement to guild members around 9:30 p.m. ET on November 8. The statement was posted to X, formerly known as Twitter, detailing some of the contract’s fine print.

“Dear #SagAftraMembers: We are thrilled & proud to tell you that today your TV/Theatrical Negotiating Committee voted unanimously to approve a tentative agreement with the AMPTP,” the thread began. “As of 12:01 a.m. PT on Nov. 9, our strike is officially suspended & all picket locations are closed. We will be in touch in the coming days with information about celebration gatherings around the country.”

“In a contract valued at over one billion dollars, we have achieved a deal of extraordinary scope that includes ‘above-pattern’ minimum compensation increases, unprecedented provisions for consent and compensation that will protect members from the threat of AI, and for the first time establishes a streaming participation bonus,” the statement continues. “Our Pension & Health caps have been substantially raised, which will bring much needed value to our plans. In addition, the deal includes numerous improvements for multiple categories including outsize compensation increases for background performers, and critical contract provisions protecting diverse communities. We have arrived at a contract that will enable SAG-AFTRA members from every category to build sustainable careers. Many thousands of performers now and into the future will benefit from this work.”

The statement adds that “full details of the agreement will not be provided until the tentative agreement is reviewed by the SAG-AFTRA National Board” and ends with a thank you to their members, “union siblings” in the industry, and the WGA. “Thank you all for your dedication, your commitment and your solidarity throughout this strike. It is because of YOU that these improvements became possible,” it concludes.

The strike began on Friday, July 14 and is the longest actors strike in Hollywood history. Pair that with the WGA writers’ strike that started in May and ended in September (146 days), and the summer of 2023 was a watershed moment for the industry.

This deal came after the guild and the AMPTP (the body representing the Hollywood studios) renewed negotiations over the last two weeks. Earlier today, the AMPTP reportedly told the SAG-AFTRA negotiating committee that it had until 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT to let them know if a deal was possible or not. On Monday, the AMPTP had sent what it called its “last, best, and final offer” to the guild, but negotiations continued after the fact.

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There were notable parallels between the WGA writers’ strike and SAG-AFTRA actors’ strike timelines. Like with the WGA strike, studio big wigs took part in the negotiations themselves later on in the later weeks of the work stoppage. When talks resumed on October 24, the CEOs of the major studios — Netflix’s Ted Sarandos, Disney’s Bob Iger, NBCUniversal’s Donna Langley, and Warner Bros Discovery’s David Zaslav — often joined in on the calls.

The biggest sticking point was protections against A.I. for actors, from the top-billed stars to the background performers. The studios reportedly wanted the maintain the right to scan a performer’s likeness and use it in perpetuity, which had the possibility to decimate background acting work as a profession in the future. Residual pay for streaming shows, and increased pay based on high-performing programs, was also an important point for the guild.

SAG leadership (which includes The Nanny‘s Fran Drescher as President and Duncan Crabtree-Ireland as the executive director and chief negotiator for the actors’ union) has repeatedly said that they would not back down until those and other issues were won. The fact that a tentative deal has been reached is an indicator that the guild got what it wanted.

According to Variety, pay increases will go up by a historic 7 percent, along with other first-of-its-kind protections. Kevin E. West, a member of the SAG negotiating committee, said outside of the union headquarters that there was “tears of exhilaration and joy” across the committee members’ faces after the deal was reached. “The final vote was unanimous. That’s a difficult thing to accomplish,” he said. “It’s honestly been a really long two weeks.” He noted the final deal is “not perfect — nothing is,” but that it’s “extraordinary.”

Hollywood is celebrating the tentative agreement. See celebrity reactions to the strike’s impending conclusion below.

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