How SAG-AFTRA spurred change through its labor strike PR campaign

When SAG-AFTRA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers came to the negotiating table in the summer of 2023, a PR strategy was already being formed behind the scenes, just in case a deal couldn’t be reached.

As it turned out, that strategy would be needed as the labor union declared a strike for 118 days. SAG-AFTRA members voted to strike after concerns about residuals from streaming services, digital recreation and AI were left unaddressed in the proposed contract.

The communications strategy behind the strike was a major win in leveraging traditional and social media to gain public support and keep the message about labor, not luxury.

There was a quick response team in place right away detailing what to say and how to say it, Pamela Greenwalt, chief communications and marketing officer for SAG-AFTRA said at the PR Daily Conference in D.C. last week.

“We started negotiations in May and that kicked off a scenario planning phase,” Greenwalt said. “What do we do if we have to strike to get what we knew was our bottom line?”

By mid to late June, there was a 65-page strategic plan in case of a strike, including a budget and a contingency for quick response.

Greenwalt said as the days lingered, it looked more and more like a strike was imminent. Then SAG-AFTRA planned its first messaging tool: tens of thousands of tee shirts to be distributed to members immediately.

The power of image

Generally speaking, people associate strikes with picket lines. It was important to keep this image at the forefront, Greenwalt said.

“They don’t think of strikes as going on a talk show,” she said. Without the right message or visibility, the strike action could have been seen as only peripherally touching the rest of humanity. Garnering support early on was imperative, Greenwalt said. SAG-AFTRA needed that picket line image.

Black shirts that read “SAG-AFTRA Strong” were distributed to members ahead of the official strike announcement. The shirt didn’t say anything about the strike, but added a bit of foreshadowing, and a clear message of unity, Greenwalt said.

“We knew we needed people in shirts in a picket line the very next day after the strike was announced,” Greenwalt said. “That was extremely important because if we let that time go by unprepared, it potentially gives the studio execs a chance to seize the moment. And we didn’t want that.”

The union had to communicate that it was not only made up of well-recognized actors and actresses who were pouting over some minute pay disparity, as one studio exec suggested while standing in front of a row of private jets.

“He said that actors were unreasonable,” Greenwalt said. “He was taking advantage of an opportunity to say that actors were being greedy. Yeah, those $200 per day background performers are so greedy. But it almost makes sense if you think about the time. He was on national television. It would have been the first thing that came out in the media.”

SAG-AFTRA countered this message, stressing that the majority of its members are minimum wage-earning background performers who deserve fair compensation, especially amid post-COVID streaming shifts and fights over AI use.

Staying visible

More than 800 members of SAG-AFTRA were trained as picket line captains. Morning and evening shifts were organized on the lines. Every move was strategic.

“We did a couple of things to make sure that the picket lines were interesting and available to the media, but also were meaningful to the folks at home,” Greenwalt said. “One was (pushing) the same images over and over again. But five weeks in, we did a rebrand and switched up the image just a bit.”

Though it is not recommended, the union felt like the black tee shirt image began to become saturated in the media, Greenwalt said.

Keeping the same color scheme, SAG-AFTRA distributed new shirts with a new image to keep the look fresh, but the message was still the same.

This move kept eyes on the strike, she said.

A New York rally was held at this point and an image from that event showed a sea of 9,000 SAG-AFTRA members holding the same sign as far as the eye can see. It was powerful, unifying and the message was consistent, Greenwalt said.

“The idea was to give a sense of an overwhelming presence,” she said. “I think we achieved that.”

After nearly four months of striking, SAG-AFTRA reached a deal with AMPTP, setting the first standards around AI and renegotiating streaming residuals. Overall, 112,000 articles were written about the strike and throughout those 118 days, SAG-AFTRA maintained 67% of public support. The union’s efforts generated more than 10 billion impressions globally.

“Making the issue at the heart of this real for a broad swath of the community was a big piece of successfully navigating this journey,” Greenwalt said.

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Courtney Blackann is a communications reporter. Connect with her on LinkedIn or email her at [email protected].