Topline:
Thousands of SAG-AFTRA picketers started marching at 9 a.m. from Netflix on Sunset Boulevard to Paramount on Melrose.
Why it matters: The union is continuing to put pressure on studios and streamers to get some forward progress in negotiations. It cancelled all other pickets at other studios.
Why now: Labor Day was once seen as a milestone in the ongoing strike. Now that that's passed, strikers — and others in the industry — are facing financial struggles.
On Wednesday morning, SAG pickets at studios across the city were cancelled, so strikers could show up to march down Van Ness Avenue from Netflix headquarters to the Paramount lot.
Thousands packed the street, creating more of a spectacle than the usual sidewalk pickets at a time when talks are still stalled.
The marchers were met with a full stage and live band at the end of their route.
“Hang in and do not give up, because this is the moment that is going to change the future and if we don’t start getting a piece of that pie, then what are we doing?” SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher told the hyped-up crowd.
Newly elected SAG-AFTRA L.A. Local First Vice President Sheryl Lee Ralph said the fight in Hollywood was inspiring other labor movements.
“So this isn’t just for us. This is for workers around the world,” Ralph exclaimed to a cheering crowd just outside the historic Paramount lot gates.
Guidelines around artificial intelligence and the use of performers' digital replicas are a major part of the SAG-AFTRA demands in negotiations. A new proposed state bill that won’t be taken up until next year would intervene, giving actors more protections.
Actor Frances Fisher called on attendees to contact their elected representatives in support of the measure.
“AB 459 ... will make it so that if any performer who signs — or who has signed — a contract with AI provisions, and they weren’t represented by an attorney prior to signing that contract, that contract will be null and void,” Fisher told the crowd.
Marcher Ray Joseph said he’s been an actor for more than three decades and it was powerful to be around so many of his colleagues at once.
“We just want a fair share. We want to be treated well, as equals,” Joseph said.
In their latest statement, studios and streamers said they want a fair deal for writers and actors and an end to the strikes.