“F**k AI” was the rallying cry as over 1,000 SAG-AFTRA members – many wearing black SAG T-shirts — and supporters gathered at Millennium Park today and marched to Buckingham Fountain in downtown Chicago.
Entering its fifth day, the SAG-AFTRA strike is directed at the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), who the actors claim have been unresponsive to their demands.
It has coincided with a Writers Guild of America strike as part of broader Hollywood labor disputes.
NBC’s Chicago P.D. regular Amy Morton was one of the Chicago SAG-AFTRA members marching. She told The Hollywood Reporter, “To me this is a just a little microcosm of the macrocosm of what’s happening in unions in the country.”
SAG-AFTRA was joined by other guild leaders and representatives from other unions — including the Writers Guild of America, the Teamsters, the Chicago Federation of Labor, and the Chicago Teachers Union. The chairmen of labor committees in the Illinois legislature, Sen. Robert Peters, and Rep. Marcus Evans, also spoke in support.
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“In the state of Illinois, we give millions of dollars to producers to make movies and TV in this state,” Peters said to the crowd. “They can give you a fucking contract. They can give you fucking healthcare. They can give you fucking good wages.” He then led the crowd in a chant of “Fuck AI!”
Chicago P.D. regular Morton added, “The complete shunning of our demands has been really rude.”
“All the issues that are on the table are really vital,” she continued. “Actors have never demanded that much in the history of this union. Our demands have never been outrageous. So this is just really pissing me off.”
Sydney Charles, who has appeared on Shameless and The Chi, told the crowd at the rally that the strike is about “the actor who is No. 1 on the call sheet to the actor who’s No. 101 on the call sheet.”
“Our quality of life as laborers and artists is being threatened,” Charles continued. “We’re here because most of us — I think the number is 86 percent of people in this membership — do not make the $26,000 annually to afford [union] healthcare. We’re here for every person who has given themselves to the art of storytelling.”
Charles Andrew Gardner, president of SAG-AFTRA’s Chicago local, told the crowd that he sees “people who have decided to make their passion their purpose” and reiterated the union’s message of unity.
“AMPTP, y’all better get it together,” Gardner said. “Get back to the table, because Chicago is not having it. L.A. is not having it. New York is not having it. This country is not having it.”
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