Hollywood actors ratify the agreement and definitively end the strike

Hollywood actors have overwhelmingly approved the new agreement with the studios to end the strike that has lasted for months. As confirmed by the SAG-AFTRA actors union this Tuesday, 78.33% of members voted in favor of approving the agreement, compared to 21.67% of union members who opposed it. "This is a golden era for SAG-AFTRA and our union has never been more powerful," celebrated the president of the union collective, Fran Drescher.

However, despite this union optimism, the truth is that, according to the figures presented this Tuesday by the performers' union, only 38.15% of the 160,000 unionized actors exercised their right to vote.

The agreement incorporates more than $1 billion in new compensation and benefits, and includes protections for actors against studios' use of artificial intelligence, the union said.

For its part, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), which represents Netflix Inc., Walt Disney and other studios, praised the ratification of the union contract. "With this vote, the industry and the jobs it supports will be able to return in full force," the alliance said in a statement reported by AFP.

Actors against the agreement: "We gain nothing"

The agreement reached did not satisfy all the actors by any means. "I voted no. And I'm fully prepared to go back on strike. Absolutely 100 per cent," actor Michael Vaccaro told AFP, denouncing that "by signing this thing, we gain nothing" and pointing out that "by going back to the strike there is the possibility of achieving a little more."

The deal includes better salaries and increased bonuses for starring roles in hit shows or movies. It includes an immediate minimum salary increase of 7% for general actors and 11% in the case of extras. However, in recent weeks fears have begun to increase about its content, especially about artificial intelligence (AI ).

The performers feared being completely replaced by digital "actors" generated by AI using a composite of diverse records of human bodies extracted from film archives. Despite the insistence of a large part of the sector, the agreement does not contemplate that studios not use generative artificial intelligence, although it has a clause to inform the union every time this technology is used.