{"id":97608,"date":"2025-08-20T20:22:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T20:22:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/97608\/"},"modified":"2025-08-20T20:22:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T20:22:07","slug":"sag-aftra-election-after-fran-drescher-the-succession-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/97608\/","title":{"rendered":"SAG-AFTRA Election After Fran Drescher: The Succession Race"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tIt was Nov. 1, 2023, about a week before the Hollywood actors union reached a deal with studios that ended a historic strike. The labor<\/a> group\u2019s president, Fran Drescher, was feeling the heat from A-listers and rank-and-file performers alike to make good on more than 100 days of withheld labor. That day, she posted a morning routine video to her Instagram.<\/p>\n

\n\tBarefaced and clad in a robe in front of a mirror, Drescher told her followers she didn\u2019t need to \u201cemulate male energy\u201d to lead the union. After applying lipstick on camera for effect, she told them she could guide her 160,000 members with strength and still \u201crock a red lip.\u201d In the video\u2019s final scene, she brandished a heart-shaped plushie toy that she brought to negotiations with industry CEOs. \u201cWish me luck!\u201d she said as she prepared to walk out the door.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt was just the kind of communication \u2014 informal, a little kooky and strangely compelling \u2014 that made Drescher a magnet for attention and arguably a potent spokesperson<\/a> for Hollywood labor during its sprawling 2023 battle for AI protections and compensation in the streaming era. Love her or hate her, the former Nanny star helped keep the union together during its 118-day strike as SAG-AFTRA<\/a> secured its first protections against generative AI and a bonus system to reward successful streaming projects.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut now, with another tough contract negotiation on the horizon, SAG-AFTRA is going to have to push forward without its erstwhile leader from Queens. This time around, Drescher has decided against running for president. In her place, another celebrity, Lord of the Rings and Rudy star Sean Astin, and a rank-and-file performer, New England Local board member Chuck Slavin, are battling it out for the job. The stakes are high, given that the candidates face a darker and more foreboding landscape than the one that even Drescher confronted when she entered office in 2021 during the pandemic.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tSean Astin (left) is running for SAG-AFTRA president on a slate of alums of Fran Drescher\u2019s administration, while rival Chuck Slavin calls himself a reform candidate.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty Images (2)<\/p>\n

\n\tTake the first item on the platform for The Coalition 2025 slate: bringing more production back to the U.S. Led by Astin, whose mother, Patty Duke, led SAG as president from 1985-88, the slate promises to support legislation that offers a carrot to productions shooting domestically. Its candidates also pledge to hold employers \u201caccountable\u201d for the slowdown in work by pressuring them to return more shoots to the U.S. That\u2019s in response to the recent downward pressure on budgets that has further driven production to hubs like the U.K., Canada and Australia and has\u00a0 reduced the volume of work for performers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAs actors reel from companies\u2019 austerity measures, the reform slate led by Slavin is advocating for easier access for California-based members to unemployment. Slavin says that if elected, he will push California to exclude residuals for historic work from being considered present-day earnings in a bid to further open up unemployment benefits to more actors.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThough Drescher is exiting the political stage, The Coalition 2025 slate in key ways represents a continuation of her approach. She saw herself as a unifier and in 2023 made good on that aspiration with a slate of running mates who had belonged to the separate Unite for Strength and Membership First camps. In Hollywood labor terms, that was a little bit as if Republicans and Democrats joined hands to form one superparty. Though the groups had some fairly mundane political differences \u2014 Unite for Strength represented a more moderate, outward-looking wing of the union, while Membership First was composed of hardliners with an inward focus \u2014 they had bickered, accused each other of violating labor law and, in some cases, exchanged legal threats for years.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Coalition 2025 is again combining the two former opponents on one slate, with past Membership First supporter Astin running alongside former Unite for Strength candidate Michelle Hurd, who is seeking the secretary-treasurer position. They\u2019re establishment figures, both having played key roles in the 2023 strike as members of the negotiating committee and the union\u2019s national board. If not household names, they\u2019re recognizable faces, with Hurd having played roles on Blindspot, Star Trek: Picard and the rom-com Anyone but You.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe reform slate, meanwhile, is promising a changing of the guard. Slavin and running mate Peter Antico may be obscure to the lay entertainment consumer but are familiar figures within SAG-AFTRA politics. Slavin, a SAG-AFTRA New England Local board member since 2012 and a background actor and performer in indies, has prior to the election been vocal in his desire for more safeguards around the use of generative AI and in opposition to vaccine mandates on film and TV productions. A former Membership First associate, Antico went independent in the 2010s and served on the national and L.A. Local boards between 2010 and 2020. The actor and stunt coordinator (Deadpool\u202f2, Bad Boys II, Training Day) was one of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit challenging the 2012 merger of SAG and AFTRA that was settled. (Other ideas that Antico has floated include creating a tech tool that tracks content to find unpaid residuals for members, building a \u201cGoogle-style campus\u201d for SAG-AFTRA and having the union invest in gold.)<\/p>\n

\n\tTogether, Slavin and Antico have taken an aggressive stance against their opponents (whom they deem \u201cstatus quo\u201d candidates) and decisions made on Drescher\u2019s watch. Their website supports suing the union on behalf of members who were \u201cdiscriminated against or lost work for not taking the COVID-19 vaccine.\u201d Slavin has recently criticized Astin for working on The Lord of the Rings without SAG-AFTRA coverage, saying he should be \u201cdisqualified from holding the office of SAG-AFTRA National President.\u201d Astin says he signed on for the films before SAG-AFTRA instituted its rule forbidding members from projects without a union contract internationally. Astin adds to The Hollywood Reporter that \u201cno rules were broken, either in letter or spirit\u201d in making the films.<\/p>\n

\n\tFor all their differences, both camps seem focused on the basics of member welfare and negotiating strong contracts. After the 2023 actors strike, some SAG-AFTRA members have been vocal about struggling to qualify for the union\u2019s health plan \u2014 an issue both slates appear eager to address. Slavin is calling for \u201cflexible\u201d health plan coverage options; currently, only a fraction of members make the $27,540 in earnings (or work the 106 days) required to be eligible. Slavin is advocating for residuals to be included as eligible earnings for union members who are senior citizens. For their part, The Coalition 2025 wants to \u201cfight for\u201d seniors who lost their health benefits in 2020 and provide more access for the plans to new members who may not qualify for current thresholds.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis time around in talks with studios, union negotiators will be facing a new but familiar opponent on the other side of the table after longtime studio negotiator Carol Lombardini stepped down. Labor and employment lawyer Gregory Hessinger, himself a former national executive director of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) and the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) before their merger, has taken her seat. No matter who wins the SAG-AFTRA elections, Hessinger will likely be faced with a union push for stronger AI protections and streaming residuals that can better sustain members amid the decline of linear TV, which both slates are supporting.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe union\u2019s next leaders may also focus on tying up some loose ends in their TV and film contract. THR found earlier this year<\/a> that only a handful of shows qualified in the first half of 2024 for the streaming success bonus that was a key win of the union\u2019s strike one year earlier (Netflix hits\u00a0Avatar: The Last Airbender\u00a0and\u00a0Griselda were said to be titles that had triggered the bonus). The union has not yet unveiled details of its \u201cRobin Hood fund<\/a>,\u201d spearheaded by Drescher, which seeks to share the spoils of streaming success with a large pool of members. Moreover, on the AI front, members have complained that getting scanned for the job can be a condition of employment and that their current contract does not bar companies from using their performances to train AI tools.<\/p>\n

\n\tThat\u2019s a lot to prepare for in just the few months between the election (the union\u2019s ballot return deadline is Sept. 12) and the start of contract negotiations (likely early in 2026). The union\u2019s next leaders will have their work cut out for them in terms of building on the provisions they negotiated in 2023. Drescher brought greater visibility and idiosyncratic feistiness to SAG-AFTRA, but can that momentum be sustained? Her heels won\u2019t be easy ones to fill.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis story appeared in the Aug. 20 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine.\u00a0Click here to subscribe<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was Nov. 1, 2023, about a week before the Hollywood actors union reached a deal with studios…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":97609,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[65777,88,1929,3801],"class_list":{"0":"post-97608","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-business-features","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-labor","11":"tag-sag-aftra"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97608\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}