{"id":197450,"date":"2026-04-14T22:30:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T22:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/197450\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T22:30:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T22:30:09","slug":"sag-aftra-leaders-join-new-york-and-federal-officials-at-rock-the-city-celebration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/197450\/","title":{"rendered":"SAG-AFTRA Leaders Join New York And Federal Officials At ‘Rock The City’ Celebration"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe topic of contract negotiations with studios and streamers was off the table Monday night as SAG-AFTRA<\/a> leaders put the focus on unity and celebration at the union\u2019s annual \u201cRock the City<\/a>\u201d event in New York.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe contract talks were recently put on pause and are set to resume April 27<\/a> ahead of the June 30 expiration the current agreement. While a media blackout prevented anyone from weighing in on the negotiations, a few audible sighs of relief could be heard when the WGA\u2019s surprise agreement with the AMPTP<\/a> was mentioned. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe \u201cRock the City\u201d celebration has been hosted for more than a decade at the union\u2019s headquarters in Manhattan, bringing together the disparate communities all under the union\u2019s umbrella, spanning Broadway, film, television, digital, advertising, music and other areas. This year\u2019s edition also drew officials including U.S. Rep Jerrold Nadler; Rafael Espinal, Commissioner of the Mayor\u2019s Office of Media and Entertainment; and New York City<\/a> Council Speaker Julie Menin. Among the SAG-AFTRA representatives in the room were New York Local President Ezra Knight; Executive Vice President Linda Powell and Rebecca Damon, Chief Labor Policy Officer and Executive Director, New York Local.<\/p>\n

\n\tDespite uncertainty about the next contract\u2019s specific provisions and concerns about the state of production in New York, a mood of celebration prevailed. A 10-minute series of remarks was punctuated by whoops and cheers.<\/p>\n

\n\tEspinal, who was appointed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani, noted that it was his first time attending the \u201cRock the City\u201d event. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe\u2019re very serious about supporting labor, especially supporting labor in the film industry,\u201d he said of the administration. \u201cSAG-AFTRA, we know, has been a strong partner in the labor movement here in New York, fighting for actors, fighting for entertainers, really leading the charge of the state and city level.\u201d His first official act as commissioner, he added, was bestowing Damon with the Made In New York Award.<\/p>\n

\n\tMenin, who served as the city\u2019s film commissioner from 2016 to 2019 when Bill DeBlasio was mayor, recalled her efforts to get more projects to shoot in New York. \u201cI partnered with you all, and we brought TV and film production to the highest level the city had ever seen,\u201d she told the enthusiastic crowd of several dozen stakeholders.<\/p>\n

\n\tShe recalled standing \u201cso many times\u201d in the SAG-AFTRA offices in the past, and gave shout-outs to Nadler and Espinal. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe are losing so much business to other cities,\u201d she said. \u201cWe can\u2019t allow that to happen. And part of it is because we need to obviously build more affordable housing, to support artists that are working here in New York City. But we also need to do more to attract more of the creative industries here in New York. So that is my commitment to all of you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tNadler drew applause and tributes, with speakers noting that the longtime Democrat announced last year that he doesn\u2019t plan to run for re-election this fall. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThere have been strikes, where I\u2019ve supported you. There have been good times, there have been bad times,\u201d Nadler said. \u201cBut overall, we know that solidarity forever, the old labor song, is exactly right.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The topic of contract negotiations with studios and streamers was off the table Monday night as SAG-AFTRA leaders…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":197451,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9,24,55,54,56,78697,35185],"class_list":["post-197450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny","tag-rock-the-city","tag-sag-aftra"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197450\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}