What Philly actors will get from SAG-AFTRA’s new tentative agreement
While some Philly actors have made it big, it's a "working-class town," and the new proposed contract reflects big wins for journeyman actors, a local SAG-AFTRA leader said.
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It’s been nearly four months since television and movie actors represented by SAG-AFTRA went on strike. They returned to work Thursday after reaching a tentative agreement with major producers.
Throughout negotiations, much of the attention has been on California and other major entertainment hubs in the United States. But Philadelphia, too, is home to thousands of actors who have been waiting on a contract so they could go back to work.
According to the union’s negotiating committee, the new contract includes pay increases, provisions meant to protect members from loss of work due to artificial intelligence, and a streaming participation bonus. It also included improvements to pension and health plans, provisions “protecting diverse communities,” and “outsize” compensation increases for background performers, the union said.
More details of the agreement will be released after SAG-AFTRA’s national board reviews it, the union said. While the strike was suspended, members still have to ratify the new contract.
Nikki Izanec, the president of SAG-AFTRA’s Philadelphia local, spoke with The Inquirer about the tentative agreement, the 118-day strike, and how Philly actors are affected.
Answers have been edited for length and clarity.
What are your thoughts on the terms of the tentative agreement?
As of 12:01 a.m. last night, we are back to work under the tentative agreement. We’re waiting to see the full details, but we do know that it includes many vital things we were fighting for. While I can’t comment on the exact terms, I do know that it has an above-pattern minimum compensation increase, which is what we were looking for. This is not a regular contract, so it deserves an irregular rate. We have unprecedented provisions for consent and compensation that protects members from the threat of AI. We sort of see this as an existential crisis. And it also established this streaming participation bonus. I’m very excited to see what the details of that look like. But that’s something that had not previously been established. Also our pension and health caps have been substantially raised.
Speaking to our local community, we have a lot of performers that work in the background community. And we’re also told that there’s an outsized compensation increase for them as background performers. And as well, contract provisions protecting diversity, and so all of those things are just monumental wins.
How many SAG-AFTRA members do you have locally, and what kind of work are they doing? What does this deal mean for them?
We have over 3,000 members locally. Many of them work on local productions. In addition, because of our [proximity to] New York, many of our members will also go there to work.
We have a lot of performers that are day players or “under-five,” meaning they have less than five lines. We also have some leading roles that go to our local performers, which is wonderful, but we’re very working-class town, so many of our performers do many different jobs in this industry [and they’re] just trying to get their time in or earn their pension and health care to take care of their family.
The working-class actor was a major focus of these negotiations and the strike, right?
It really was. I had the privilege to work with many of the negotiators that are in that room and other contracts like commercials or network code contracts. And these aren’t super rich, famous people. Many of the negotiators have done quite well for themselves, but everybody in there was fighting for everybody. This was about everybody. But in particular to make sure that this journeyman actor gets what’s due to them.
One estimate said California’s economy lost out on billions because of strikes by Hollywood actors and writers this year. Is there any way to quantify the impact of TV and film production on Philadelphia’s economy, and how the work stoppage would have affected that?
You know, there really isn’t, and it’s interesting because I feel like in the larger hubs, it is a more closely tracked thing. But you can look at the different communities that it affects, like catering, like hotel and tourism, like IATSE crews and laborers. Lots of people are involved in making the sets, are involved in catering the meals, are involved in transportation to and from locations and people-moving. And it brings tourism into the city — people think it’s exciting to be at a place that they saw in Rocky and run up the steps. The reach is much mightier than maybe you can quantify.
How actors get paid by streaming companies was a major sticking point in this strike, and at the same time, streaming companies are facing their own economic pressures. How might that affect actors?
Perhaps a number of jobs will change. But maybe they’ll get reconfigured or the quality of them will change. Maybe there will be some shows that have multiple seasons that are able to thrive that people were hired onto that are big shows. So that would keep the numbers.
There probably will be a shrinkage of some kind in the industry with the number of productions, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that the jobs will go away.
AI could be the next big disrupter. How do you feel about the union getting ahead of that by getting terms into the contract now?
This was the time to set ground rules for the future. We don’t know how this is gonna go. We don’t know what type of evolutions are going to happen. But it’s important to say right now what we believe in and how things are going to be as the creators of this content. To lay a firm foundation for the future, I think, is a great first step.
Any other thoughts to share on the strike and this agreement?
The movement itself — this is about the we, not about the me or any one person — and the national efforts and the persistence and solidarity. It’s been over 118 days. I’ve never seen anything like this before. Our local SAG-AFTRA Philadelphia members were going to New York picket lines to help rally locally on a regular basis. I’m just very grateful that it’s over, I’m very excited to go back. And I’m just very thankful that we have such a great community here.