Stage Actors Urged To “Proactively” Avoid Breaking SAG-AFTRA Strike – Deadline

Actors’ Equity president Kate Shindle is urging stage actors to “proactively and aggressively avoid breaking” the SAG-AFTRA strike by inadvertently accepting struck work.

In a message to members of Equity, which reps stage actors and stage managers, Shindle writes, “Know this: the other side will try to pit us against each other to keep churning out content. Don’t fall for it.”

“I cannot overstate how critical it is for members (and future members!) of to proactively and aggressively avoid breaking the @sagaftra strike,” Shindle writes, adding, “If you are offered work of any kind for an #AMPTP employer, don’t take any third party’s word for it that ‘it’s okay’ or ‘it’s not covered by the strike’…Call @sagaftra and ask whether performing the work in question will undermine the strike.”

Read Shindle’s entire message below.

“If you don’t know whether you’re being asked to do struck work, that’s understandable; it’s a complex issue,” says Shindle. “But it’s on each of us to make sure we’re not betraying other workers, even if our faces won’t be on camera. Performing struck work creates a race to the bottom.”

Shindle reminds Equity members that work being withheld by SAG-AFTRA members includes auditioning for AMPTP projects, being on set, post-production, promotion, and more. “When in doubt – or to report strike-breaking activity – contact @sagaftra ASAP.”

“Every strike is important,” the Equity president writers, “but this one is existential. This is a generational battle for a fair and functioning entertainment industry, and our opponents have nearly unlimited resources. But we have the workers. We can do it.”

The SAG-AFTRA strike will not impact Broadway productions. SAG-AFTRA members who appear on Broadway operate under Equity contracts, with actors typically having dual memberships in the unions.