Actors, union leaders rally in downtown Chicago as SAG-AFTRA strike continues

Several hundred actors, union members and their supporters rallied in Grant Park on Tuesday in support of the joint screenwriters and actors strike that’s now in its second month.

Local members of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Radio and Television Artists chanted “Hot labor summer!” and “Labor united cannot be defeated!” near Buckingham Fountain and listened to speeches from local union leaders. The crowd also heard supportive speeches from politicians U.S. Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, Illinois state Sen. Lakesia Collins and Ald. Rossana Rodriguez Sanchez (33rd).

“This is a labor revolution,” SAG-AFTRA Chicago local president Charles Gardner said during the rally. “And those aren’t just my words — the media is catching it, and they’re calling it a labor revolution. How powerful is that?”

SAG-AFTRA has been on strike since July 13, when leaders voted to join screenwriters in the the Writers Guild of America in the first joint strike in over six decades.

Talks are ongoing between the WGA and Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, but a deal has yet to be reached.

Actors are pushing the AMPTP for better wages, revenue sharing and protections from artificial intelligence being used to replace them, according to a press release from the Chicago Federation of Labor.

“We have to continue to fight for the things that we want, for the things that we deem to be fair and just,” SAG-AFTRA member Anthony Fleming III, who plays JP Gibbs “Power Book IV: Force” on Starz, told the crowd. “We are fighting for integrity, for our respect and to be honored for our vast and immensely important contributions in our professions.”