With SAG-AFTRA’s national board officially calling an actors strike Thursday after contract talks with studios and streamers broke down without a deal, U.K. actors union Equity has expressed its support for the Hollywood work stoppage, which will impact 160,000 union members, and set out advice to its own members.
Calling the strike authorization a “brave step,” Equity general secretary Paul W. Fleming said: “Equity stands full square behind our sister union in their claim and the action their board have agreed to take. Equity too is experiencing bullish engagers attempting to undermine its collectively bargained agreements. SAG-AFTRA has our total solidarity in this fight.”
He also addressed studios and their representation. “We say clearly to the AMPTP and their members that they need to move significantly and swiftly to meet the reasonable aspirations of SAG-AFTRA’s members,” Fleming said. “The members of our unions, and all entertainment unions across the globe, create the vast wealth within our industry — it is right and just that they have decent, modern pay and conditions.”
Equity said it would be organizing “demonstrations, rallies, and protests in the coming days and weeks to show our solidarity with our sister union and their fight.”
It also shared detailed advice for creatives working in the U.K. who are Equity and/or SAG-AFTRA members. “Industrial relations legislation in the United Kingdom is draconian, and often viewed as the most restrictive in the Western world,” Fleming said though. “The convoluted and pernicious hurdles faced by all unions in the United Kingdom are a national disgrace and need urgent reform. The regrettable consequence of this framework is that what artists working in the United Kingdom — whether SAG-AFTRA and/or Equity members (or both) — can do, may be different from their comrades in the United States and other parts of the world.”
For example, Equity said: “We have been advised by SAG-AFTRA that its strike is lawful according to United States law but we have been advised by our U.K. lawyers that it is not lawful under United Kingdom law.” That means that a performer joining the strike in the U.K. “will have no protection against being dismissed or sued for breach of contract by the producer or the engaged,” the union highlighted. “Likewise, if Equity encourages anyone to join the strike or not cross a picket line, Equity itself will be acting unlawfully and hence liable for damages or an injunction.”
