During a weekend national board meeting, SAG-AFTRA revealed that less than 1% of its 160,000-plus members qualify for the streaming success bonus the union won in its 2023 strike, according to Deadline. Roughly $1.5 million will roll out to about 700 performers for work released in 2024.
Do the math the union did for us. The bonus that was the headline demand of the 2023 strike is about to pay 700 people out of 160,000. That is not a benefit. That is a raffle. The threshold is set so high that the payout only fires when a show becomes a hit, and "hit" on 2026 streaming means "the studio admitted it exists." The checks are for work released two years ago, so the residual is no longer a pension. It is a thank-you card with a two-year shipping delay.
President Sean Astin admitted "a palpable disconnect" in a video message, which is the one honest sentence in the entire union memo. Everything else is PR in its old font: "What we have won back is substantial, but it is nowhere near what it was." Translation: we fought a historic strike to win you a participation trophy, and the trophy has a two-year lead time.
The real story is health insurance. The income threshold to qualify is $28,933 in union-contracted work a year, and Drake Bell, who has been doing this 35 years, posted "Do not become an actor. Do not join SAG." Cheyenne Jackson, after nearly losing his own coverage, started an Instagram series called ONE JOB AWAY that begs casting directors to hire actors before they go uninsured. The union's answer to 100,000 members is a 12-minute video asking you to hold on a little longer. At the end of October, members behind on dues get terminated. Keep holding on. The dues do not stop.
YOUR TURN: Is a bonus 0.4% of members can claim a win, or a loyalty test?
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