The longest actor’s strike against film studios in Hollywood history ended last month on Thursday, November 9, 2023. The National Board of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Arts (SAG-AFTRA), a union comprising over 160,000 media professionals working in the entertainment industry, approved a deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP).

On July 14, SAG-AFTRA initiated a 118-day strike against AMPTP to advocate for better pay, improved working conditions, and the establishment of ground rules surrounding the use of artificial intelligence. A significant aspect of the strike was ensuring that actors received fair residuals for projects now streamed by companies like Netflix. Although happening concurrently, the SAG-AFTRA strike was distinct from the Writers Guild of America strike, which concluded on September 27th.

The SAG-AFTRA strike concluded with the approval of a deal with AMPTP, securing wage increases and protections against the use of AI, which posed a threat to actors’ livelihoods. The deal, accepted by the SAG-AFTRA national board with 86% approval, specifically provided actors with a 7% wage increase and over $1 billion for wages and benefits for future work. In addressing the issue of past lost wages for streaming shows, the deal included $40 million for previous work for which actors had not been properly reimbursed. Importantly, the deal mandated that companies seek consent before creating digital replicas of actors and also required compensation for actors whenever their “digital clone” was used.

While SAG-AFTRA did not achieve all its demands, it secured a deal ensuring fair pay for past and future work. The union also made history by establishing the first-ever deal involving the use of AI in the entertainment industry.