We're offering a 2-week trial of WrapPRO for $1. If you’ve been wanting to check out our full coverage, now’s the time. Greetings!It seems like just yesterday that the entertainment industry's unions had hammered out labor agreements that put to rest the devastating double strikes of 2023 — a stoppage that we're still feeling the impact of today. But as Jeremy Fuster notes, negotiations are set to begin for the next round of contracts, with SAG-AFTRA moving to be the first to talk with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, the labor representative for the studios. The negotiations, which begin a week from today, comes at a time when the industry is in a radically different place. The era of Peak TV is over and production rates are far below what they were before the strikes — shoot days in Los Angeles County in 2025 sank 46.5% compared to 2022, according to FilmLA. Thousands of entertainment workers, from actors to writers and crew members, have struggled to find employment with the industry still struggling to recover, with the prospect of further consolidation potentially exacerbating the problem. That makes avoiding a strike on consecutive contract cycles all the more crucial, Fuster notes. But to get there, SAG-AFTRA will be looking for more protections against the exploitation of its actors by artificial intelligence and to build upon the new model for streaming compensation that brought the 2023 work stoppage to an end. Also in the mix are talks for a potentially longer contract cycle as studios seek more long-term financial stability. While SAG-AFTRA and AMPTP declined to comment for this story, insiders on both sides told Fuster there’s cautious optimism that a deal could be reached, though National Executive Director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland said at a panel at the Consumer Electronics Show last month that the union would not accept a deal that did not have significant improvements in various categories that are major concerns for actors, the most prominent being AI protections and streaming compensation, which were at the core of the prior strikes, which dragged on for 191 days. “I want to be crystal clear: We are not going to accept a deal that is not fair to our members,” he said. “There is no reason there should need to be a strike because these companies should come to the table in good faith, as we are.” Roger Cheng 
Leading the SAG-AFTRA side will be Crabtree-Ireland and newly elected president and negotiating committee veteran Sean Astin... 
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