Actress Fran Drescher led a rally of hundreds of striking actors and writers outside City Hall on Tuesday, moments before the City Council was set to vote on a resolution backing the striker’s efforts for better pay.
Drescher, who is president of the Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), slammed studio producers at the rally, describing them as “greed-driven and disrespectful.” She said that they make huge profits while the majority of her 160,000 members struggle to make $26,500 a year – a threshold that would qualify them for union-paid healthcare coverage.
“We will not stepped on or squeezed out of our livelihood so that they can look good for their shareholders,” Drescher said in front of the boisterous crowd that held black-and-yellow colored signs that read: “SAG-AFTRA on strike.”
“My members want the same things for their children that these uber-wealthy CEOs want for theirs. They are working people who simply want to pay their rent and put food on the table.”
The rally was organized by Council Member Carmen De La Rosa, who represents District 10 in Manhattan covering the neighborhoods of Washington Heights, Inwood and Marble Hill.
SAG-AFTRA went on strike last month after failing to reach a deal on pay increases with Hollywood’s biggest studios. Members also say they want a greater share of revenues generated each time their work is streamed on online platforms (known as residuals), while they also want to cut a deal that would prevent studios from using AI to write artificial intelligence (AI) to replace them.
The decision meant that SAG-AFTRA joined members of the striking Writers Guild of America who have been on strike since May 2. The Writers Guild of America, a combination of two different labor unions representing writers in film, television, radio and online media, represents around 11,500 workers across America and they are striking over similar issues.
It marks the first-time actors in the film and television industry have been on strike since 1980. It is also the first simultaneous strike of actors and writers unions since 1960.
Drescher, who is widely known for role as Fran Fine in the 1990s hit sitcom The Nanny, said that the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers’ (AMPTP) “maniacal corporate culture for greed must stop.” She was joined at the rally by several city council members as well as Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine.
“Industry profit and doing the right thing on behalf of workers does not have to be mutually exclusive but go hand in hand.”
She asked aloud why Hollywood producers were stonewalling the unions in negotiations.
“Are they hoping to break us? Our resolve is strong. They will have to yield to our deal,” Drescher said to cheers and applause from the crowd.
“All we want is a fair deal and to gain respect.”
