SAG-AFTRA released the full terms of its four-year deal with Hollywood studios Monday, revealing a contract that pushes further on artificial intelligence restrictions than any previous agreement and finally merges the union’s two long-separated pension funds — a move that has already sparked internal dissent.
The national board approved the deal and sent it to members for a ratification vote, with ballots going out May 14 and voting closing June 4. The board voted 89% in favor of recommending the agreement, which was reached with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers on May 2 after talks that opened in February, paused to let the Writers Guild of America conclude its own negotiations, then resumed April 27.
The most closely watched element of the deal covers AI. Producers committed to “a principle strongly favoring human performances” and agreed not to deploy AI-generated “synthetic performers” — digital characters with no real-world counterpart — unless doing so offers “significant additional value” to the production. New language also bars producers from using a digital replica of a performer as a strike-breaking tool and requires an “articulable business reason” before scanning any performer for replica purposes. Additional protections were negotiated specifically for digital replicas of minors.
The union did not, however, secure a guaranteed payment to a union fund when studios employ synthetic characters. That gap may fuel debate during the ratification period.
The pension merger carries the deal’s sharpest internal controversy. The SAG-Producers Pension Plan and AFTRA Retirement Fund are set to consolidate by January 1, 2028, nearly 16 years after the two unions themselves merged in 2012. Some plan beneficiaries have warned the consolidation harms SAG members. “It’s a bailout,” said Peter Antico, a former candidate for secretary-treasurer who has filed a complaint about it with the Department of Labor.
On compensation, the contract delivers standard 3% annual wage increases, an average 5% rise in streaming residuals, and raises the Success Bonus Distribution Fund trigger — meaning titles watched by 20% of a streaming platform’s subscribers now generate a studio contribution equal to 35% of total actor residuals, up from 25%.
First-time gains include choreographers in the union contract, a new parental leave fund, and expanded access to virtual auditions for TV roles.
SAG-AFTRA president Sean Astin called it “a very strong deal that builds on the gains of 2023” and said he was sending it to members with his full support. With the actors’ deal now before members, attention shifts to the Directors Guild of America, which sat down with the AMPTP on May 11 to begin its own round of bargaining.
