While the Writers Guild of America is nearing 70 days on the picket lines, SAG-AFTRA is looking to follow suit soon. Posts from them on social media explicitly state that they’re ready for a full strike, Deadline reports. If it turns to a full strike, it’ll be the first once actors have staged since 1980, before SAG and AFTRA merged. 

In the lead-up to a possible strike, the guild held a vote on June 5th, with 98% voting in favor of a strike. The guild and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers are still in talks, even going as far as to stretch their contract from June 30th to July 12th, in hopes of concluding. 

The main issues that the guild has laid out to be addressed are as follows: economic fairness, residuals, use of artificial intelligence, and regulating the industry’s shift to self-taping. Artificial intelligence is also a shared factor between them and the ongoing WGA strike. 

The bottom line for economic fairness comes down to “providing our members a meaningful share of the economic value created by their performances.” They also added that the outdated contract terms don’t pair well with the ever-changing media business, making it difficult for guild members to achieve a decent income under these conditions. 

For the residuals, it comes down to the payments of the projects, which are now being monetized around the world with their residuals not reflecting that reach. “SAG-AFTRA is committed to ensuring residual payments both reflect the economic value of our members’ contribution and serve as a meaningful source of performer earnings.”

As far as AI goes, it is very similar to the WGA’s problems with the new technology, especially concerning copyright and image ownership. It needs some form of acceptable use because the possibilities are endless. In the current sense, it could replicate any member’s voice or likeness. “In their public statements and policy work,” the WGA states, “the companies have not shown a desire to take our members’ basic rights to our own voices and likenesses seriously.”

Finally, the guild is looking for a way to keep a reasonable amount of self-taped auditions in circulation and try to find different methods of auditioning. Most actors believe that “reasonable rules and limitations, and access to other casting formats, are sorely needed to ensure fair access to work opportunities and protect performers against exploitation.”