SAG-AFTRA strike pours cold water on studios 'cruel' tactics for WGA?

Since May, The Writers Guild of America has been on the streets protesting for their rights.

Now, the Screen Actors Guild is joining their colleagues as their talks with the studios broke down.

The protest's significance can be gauged from the fact that the two guilds, with a total of 161,500 members, will jointly strike after 63 years.

"What's happening to us is happening across all fields of labor," said Fran Drescher, SAG-AFTRA's president.

"When employers make Wall Street and greed their priority and they forget about the essential contributors who make the machine run, we have a problem."

Both unions have almost matching demands:

*Better wages

*Health and pension benefits

*Safe working conditions

*Protection against AI rise in the industry

Drescher continued, "We are the victims here," adding, "We are being victimized by a very greedy entity. I am shocked by the way the people that we have been in business with are treating us.," adding, "It is disgusting," and "Shame on them."

However, the AMPTP, also known as the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, is reportedly not on board to sit with the strikers.

According to Deadline, the key studios are scheming to undermine the ongoing protest instead of holding parleys with them.

"I think we're in for a long strike, they're going to let it bleed out," an industry veteran told the publication.

The studios head honchos stressed the demands of the protestors are unreasonable, as Disney chief Bob Iger added that the industry is in the healing mode from the coronavirus pandemic as these strikes coming is at “the worst time in the world.”

To whittle down the ongoing strike, a top executive provided insight into the Hollywood executives' endgame “is to allow things to drag on until union members start losing their apartments and their houses."

Capitalizing on the pressure after allegedly receiving the Wall Street blessings, the report claims, the streaming chiefs were jacked up to “break the WGA," while another unnamed tipster called the tactic “a cruel but necessary evil.”

“It was agreed upon months ago, even before the WGA went on strike,” an insider spilled the beans, adding the plan is to stretch the strike until October, “Nobody wanted a strike, but everyone knew this was make-or-break."

But the alleged perfectly-hatched plan seemingly hit the wall when the actors union joined the fray.

In the meantime, several highly-anticipated films and shows, including Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part 2 and House of the Dragon, will fear to halt production.