SAG-AFTRA, the world’s largest union representing entertainment and media artists, celebrated the 10th anniversary of its historic merger between the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.
The anniversary on March 30, 2022, marked an extraordinary decade in which the union negotiated groundbreaking motion picture, television, new media, commercials, video games and broadcast contracts for its members. Additionally, SAG-AFTRA improved workplace standards for its members through new standards and protocols for the use of intimacy coordinators, creating a mobile app sexual harassment reporting tool, adding antiharassment language to contracts and working with other unions to create safety protocols that allowed members to resume work during the pandemic.
In the decade since the merger, the combined SAGAFTRA has undertaken broad initiatives that changed the face of the entertainment and media industry, including:
• Releasing a custom member mobile app.
• Creating a direct deposit function for residuals payments.
• Negotiating the first agreement between the union and a streaming service.
• Negotiating the first network television contract in 50 years with Spanish-language Telemundo.
• Releasing the first standards and protocols for the use of intimacy coordinators and stunt coordinators.
• Negotiating a Return to Work Agreement to get members back to work in a safe and protected environment during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Expanding union protection to social media stars with its unprecedented Influencer Agreement.
Most recently, SAG-AFTRA was the first union ever named to Fast Company magazine’s World’s Most Innovative Companies list. SAG-AFTRA joins a select group of groundbreaking businesses and organizations across industries and around the globe in receiving this honored distinction, ranking seventh on the list of the 10 Most Innovative Film and Television Companies.
The AFL-CIO congratulates SAG-AFTRA on their successful merger and their extraordinary achievements over the past decade. The federation, its affiliates and the delegates to the AFL-CIO Convention send best wishes for many more decades of excellence, and salute President Fran Drescher, Executive Vice President Ben Whitehair, Secretary-Treasurer Joely Fisher, National Executive Director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, the national and local officers, membership and staff of SAG-AFTRA.