KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — A member of the Screen Actors Guild from East Tennessee joined workers on a strike. Jake Thomas, who played Matt McGuire in Lizzy McGuire, was born in Knoxville.
He said he had joined picket lines leading up to when SAG-AFTRA called the strike in mid-July. He said he has been a member of the union since 1996 when he was six years old. The Writers Guild of America first went on strike in May demanding increased minimum compensation including residuals.
SAG-AFTRA had similar issues with studios and streaming services, with concerns about contracts keeping up with rising prices and residual payments. Both unions also wanted to implement guardrails protecting workers from the use of artificial intelligence mimicking their work.
"Basically, you got a couple of major factors that everybody is striving to achieve in agreements with these major studios. SAG had a theatrical TV contract, and it gets renewed every three years on a regular basis and the terms for that agreement expired. They didn't reach any kind of agreement before it expired," said Thomas. "I know some of this overlaps a little bit with the WGA, but from SAG's perspective, the number one thing is rate minimums."
He said A-list, B-list and C-list celebrities likely would not be affected by the strike. Instead, the strike would mostly affect lower pay-rate performers, such as people who perform one-line parts.
"These contracts and these agreements protect them, and they set a minimum for them," said Thomas.
The unions also aim to prevent artificial intelligence from mimicking the image of actors or from writing scripts and to increase residual payments. Thomas said some actors rely on residuals to stay afloat while they are waiting for a TV show to return, but may not be able to find work elsewhere because of their contract with the show.
"I think it's been kind of writing on the wall for a while, you know, the past few years. It's not even for creatives, writers and actors. It's been kind of on the wall for just a lot of just workers in general, for the past few years. Wages haven't kept up," he said. "It's not even just an actor or creative issue. It's a labor issue, too."
He said SAG-AFTRA members also went to support a rally for UPS workers. The union for those workers has threatened a strike if a deal is not reached by July 31.
"IATSE members, they showed solidarity and not crossing picket lines for WGA. So, a lot of productions were shut down," he said.
He also said he has seen support from people who don't work in the entertainment industry.
"Right now, the unions aren't asking for any kind of boycott of anything. I think probably the best way that people can help out is, I think, just kind of share the information that's out there," he said. "What these unions want to try to do with the strike is to make this a sustainable job."