On the picket lines with actors and writers from Hollywood, from LA to New York

LOS ANGELES –

It’s a Strike Girl Summer.

So read a picket sign as the sidewalks of Hollywood and Midtown Manhattan teemed with actors on Day 1 of their strike, protesting alongside the writers who have been on it since May.

Together, the two guilds brought the entertainment industry to a standstill. However, the mood was exuberant on both coasts as picket lines were revived by the support of some of the 65,000 actors who make up SAG-AFTRA (98% of members voted to strike in June). This is Hollywood’s biggest labor struggle in six decades, and the first double strike since 1960, reigniting the fight against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers just as a historic heat wave hits Southern California.

Outside the Warner Bros. studios. in Burbank, California, crowds of protesters chanted, “Fists up, curtains down, LA is a union city.” Food trucks next to the organizers’ tents served churros, boba tea and cold lemonade to protesters who were baking in the afternoon heat that reached 36.7 degrees Celsius.

But the oppressive sun couldn’t dampen the mood. Protesters spat on each other and danced to reggaeton music as passersby in cars honked in support of signs such as, “Honk if your boss overpaid.”

Parents on the picket line hoisted their kids over their shoulders and pushed toddlers into strollers, high-fiving each other with signs that echoed defiant lyrics from Olivia Rodrigo’s new single “Vampire” and wrapped “Big Strike Energy.”

“The mold is done,” Fran Drescher, president of SAG-AFTRA and once the titular star of “The Nanny,” said at SAG’s press conference Thursday. “The whole business model has changed with streaming, digital, AI. If we don’t hold our ground now, we’ll all be in trouble.”

The infusion of support from SAG members was noted by comedian and writer Adam Conover, a member of SAG and WGA who serves on the latter’s negotiating committee.”

“If you gain momentum like we’re on a strike for 70 days, you’re going to win,” Conover said. “You know, the strategy of the writers guild companies when we go on strike is to starve us and wait, not even talk to us for months because they expect us to bleed support. But look at this – our strike lines are fuller than ever and now have another union on strike with us.”

SAG and WGA last went on strike simultaneously more than six decades ago.

“What we gained in 1960 was our health and retirement plans and the existence of residuals,” Conover said. Now executives “are faced with not only not getting new scripts, but not being able to record anything until they come back and make a fair deal not with one union but with both unions.”

Zora Bikangaga, also a member of both guilds, called Friday’s picket “invigorating” and a testament to how the issues facing writers are “pervasive across the industry.”

While the industry’s business model has seen major changes in the decades since the last strike, actors say their rates and contracts haven’t adjusted to inflation and other changes.

“They’re using the gig economy as a way of saying, ‘This is how you can be more independent,’ when in fact it diminishes the value and power of organized labor,” says actor Ron Song, who appeared on Amazon Freevee’s. “Jury Duty,” which was nominated for four Emmys this week.

Former co-stars and acquaintances reunite during demonstrations. Some had not seen each other since the coronavirus outbreak more than three years ago.

The first full day of the double strike was marked by high energy – joy and unity mixed with anger and frustration.

For actor Stacey Travis, who has been actively involved with SAG-AFTRA for many years, the decision to strike was not taken lightly.

“It feels extraordinary and it feels sad,” she said of the moment. “It’s very difficult for everyone, so we’ve always taken it incredibly seriously. So only when we’re up against the wall and out of options are we here.”

“It’s all over for me,” actor Peter Carellini said about the reason for the strike. “It’s AI. It’s residuals. It’s the fact that Bob Chapek, Bob Iger, David Zaslav make countless millions in bonuses, while writers and actors go to the Emmys with negative bank accounts.”