SAG-AFTRA gets more AI protections in new tentative contract
Union leaders trumpeted gains in SAG-AFTRA’s tentative contract with the major studios, citing stronger AI protections and the consolidation of previously separate pension plans.
“The theme of this negotiation really has been about looking out for the future of performers, and I think that the contract delivers on that,” Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, SAG-AFTRA’s chief negotiator, said in an interview Tuesday.
After striking the deal a little over a week ago, SAG-AFTRA said its national board approved the proposed contract on Monday.
The union‘s membership, which includes more than 160,000 actors, broadcast journalists, dancers, DJs, stunt performers, voice-over artists and other entertainment professionals, will begin voting on the new contract later this week.
“The scope of the contract is something that I hope the members find meaningful,” SAG-AFTRA President Sean Astin said.
One of the chief gains, he said, was merging of the pension plans of the two previously separate unions — the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists — fourteen years after they agreed to combine.
Their health plans were consolidated in 2017, but the pensions have remained separate until the current negotiation cycle. That was a major sticking point with members, some of whom couldn’t qualify for benefits as their contributions were split between two plans. Studios agreed to boost their overall contributions to the combined plan by 1%.
Union leaders also pointed to stronger protections against AI, including new guidelines that govern how studios should use generative AI and that strongly favor “human performances.”
The guardrails state that producers should not intend to use AI in a human role unless a synthetic actor brings “significant additional value” to the production. The contract draws a distinction between a digital replica that is created with a performer’s consent vesus a synthetic digital character that is not authorized.
“Digital replicas are derived from human beings who have compensation and other protections available to them,” Astin said. “If it can’t be done like that, then they’ve got to bargain with us for some very unique use of synthetics…That’s a pretty high bar.”
Under the new contract, minimum wage rates will increase by 3% annually. The agreement also boosts the so-called bonus for residuals that performers get on most-watch streaming shows. Members will increase their contribution to the health plan by 1%.
The actors’ union first began negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers in February and extended those talks in March. They were briefly paused to allow the studios to finish negotiations with the writers’ union.
SAG-AFTRA joins WGA as the latest Hollywood union to strike a four-year deal with the studios. The previous contract term was three years.
The Directors Guild of America is the last union that still needs to land its own agreement. Negotiation sessions with the studios started on Monday. The contract is set to expire on June 30.