Hollywood actors formally announced a strike after negotiations between their union and motion picture studios collapsed, a serious blow for the entertainment industry that could cripple film and TV productions across the U.S., according to CBS News. About 65,000 actors represented by the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists are walking off the set effective midnight Friday, SAG-AFTRA leaders announced on Thursday afternoon. It is the first industrywide work stoppage by the labor group since 1980. “Actors deserve a contract that reflects the changes that have taken place in the industry. Unfortunately the current model devalues our members and affects their ability to make ends meet,” Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, the union’s national executive director, said in a press conference in Los Angeles to declare the strike action “What’s happening to us is happening across all forms of work,” SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher said in a fiery speech that drew applause from the room. Studios “plead poverty, that they are losing money left and right, while they give millions to their CEOs. They stand on the wrong side of history at this very moment,” she said. “At some point, the jig is up. You cannot keep being marginalized and disrespected and dishonored,” she said. “At some point, you have to say no.” The performers join more than 11,000 TV and script writers represented by the Writers Guild of America who have been on strike since early May. It’s the first time two major Hollywood unions have been on strike at the same time since 1960, when Ronald Reagan was the actors’ guild president.

Source: Azerbaijan State News Agency