The Hollywood actors‘ union and studios have come to a tentative agreement to end their longstanding strike, following months of labour unrest that had brought the entertainment business to an unprecedented standstill.
After nearly four months of negotiations, a settlement was reached late on Wednesday to end the longest strike ever for film and television performers, signaling the beginning of the industry’s most anticipated respite during its stormiest season in decades.
The union leadership announced that the strike would stop on Thursday, but the three-year contract deal still had to be ratified by votes from the union’s board and members in the following days.
The three-year contract must be approved by the board of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and its members in the coming days.
Since 1960, this is the first time the two unions have gone on strike jointly.
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Studios chose to negotiate with the writers first – striking a deal that their leadership marked as a major win and bringing their strike to an end on September 26.
SAG-AFTRA’s executive director and principal negotiator, Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, said that the agreement’s accomplishments were worth the fight.
“It’s an agreement that our members can be proud of. I’m certainly very proud of it,” Crabtree-Ireland told The Associated Press in an interview. “We said we would only accept a fair, equitable and respectful deal, and that’s precisely what this deal is. So I think our members, as we are able to release more of the details of it, will look at them and say, now this is something that was worth being on strike for,” he said.
Actors would return to movie sets where productions were paused, including those of “Deadpool 3,” “Gladiator 2” and “Wicked.” Other movies and shows will restart shooting once returning writers finish the scripts.
Additionally, as Hollywood‘s awards season draws near, the conclusion of the strike permits performers to resume appearing on talk programs, podcasts, and the red carpets.