Meryl Streep Joins Over 300 Actors Threatening to Strike in Letter to SAG-AFTRA: “The Power of Our Union” Has “Been Undermined”

Meryl Streep, Jennifer Lawrence and over 300 other actors have signed a letter addressed to SAG-AFTRA threatening to strike if their demands aren’t met in their new contract.

The letter, which was addressed directly to the union’s Leadership and Negotiating Committee, urged the union not to compromise on the actors’ demands, stating, “SAG-AFTRA members may be ready to make sacrifices that leadership is not.”

“We hope you’ve heard the message from us: This is an unprecedented inflection point in our industry, and what might be considered a good deal in any other years is simply not enough,” the letter states, per Rolling Stone. “We feel that our wages, our craft, our creative freedom, and the power of our union have all been undermined in the last decade. We need to reverse those trajectories.”

This move comes just weeks after union president Fran Drescher shared a video, saying the ongoing contract negotiations were “extremely productive” ahead of their contract expiring this coming Friday (June 30).

It also coincides with the ongoing writers strike, which began in May after the Writers Guild of America failed to reach an agreement with Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.

The letter specifically cites inflation and the growth of streaming content as major concerns for the actors. They state that the new contract needs to address these issues with “seismic changes” in pay and media residuals.

The letter also demands that they “restore dignity to the casting process” by regulating self tapes.

Another major concern highlighted in the letter is regulating artificial intelligence, which was also a main concern for writers going into the writers’ strike. “We do not believe that SAG-AFTRA members can afford to make halfway gains,” the letter reads. “And we think it is absolutely vital that this negotiation protects not just our likenesses, but makes sure we are well compensated when any of our work is used to train AI.”

The letter goes on to maintain that settling “for a less than transformative deal” will give the union “drastically reduced leverage” in the next negotiations.

The threat to strike comes just weeks after 97.9 percent of SAG-AFTRA members voted in favor of striking if need be.

Among those who signed the letter are Quinta Brunson, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Amy Poehler, and more.

“We want you to know that we would rather go on strike than compromise on these fundamental points,” it says.