Equity film and TV performers demand AI protections in 99% vote

Performers working in film and TV have voted ‘Yes’ by a landslide 99% to refuse digital scanning on set in order to secure artificial intelligence protections. Equity, the performing arts and entertainment trade union, held the indicative ballot.

General secretary Paul W Fleming announced the result on 18 December, at the union’s headquarters in Covent Garden. Equity members were also in attendance, holding placards saying “Performers demand AI protections”.

Equity is currently negotiating the agreements it holds with Pact, the trade body representing the majority of film and TV production companies in the UK. They aim to set minimum standards for pay, terms and conditions for performers working in the sector.

Equity ballot

The ballot turnout was 75%, with eligible voters made up of members working in film and TV – 7,746 actors, stunt performers, and dancers who have worked on a Pact-Equity agreement since they were last negotiated in 2021.

It is the first time this whole section of the union’s membership has ever been balloted.

As an indicative ballot, it isn’t binding and doesn’t legally cover Equity members to take industrial action. That would need a statutory ballot. Instead, this decisive result proves the strength of feeling among performers. They want to protect their AI rights. And they’ve indicated they’ll refuse digital scanning on set to do so – a form of action short of strike.

Negotiations

Equity will now write to Pact with the results. It’ll demand Pact comes back to the negotiating table with a better deal on AI. If Pact still refuses to enshrine the AI protections the union is seeking in the agreements, it’ll hold a statutory ballot for industrial action.

Responding to the result, Equity’s general secretary Paul W Fleming said:

Artificial intelligence is a generation-defining challenge. And for the first time in a generation, Equity’s film and TV members have shown that they are willing to take industrial action.

90% of TV and film is made on these agreements. Over three quarters of artists working on them are union members. This shows that the workforce is willing to significantly disrupt production unless they are respected, and decades of erosion in terms and conditions begins to be reversed.

The US streamers and PACT need to step away from the brink, and respect this show of strength. We need adequate AI protections which build on, not merely replicate, those agreed after the SAG-AFTRA strike in the USA over two years ago.

The union believes this can be resolved through negotiation, but 18 months of talks have led us to this stalemate. With fresh AI proposals, significant movement on royalties, and a package of modern terms and conditions, PACT and allied producers can turn this around. The ball is in their court when we return to the table in January.

Featured image via Equity