To sign the statement of support, click here.
LOS ANGELES — SAG-AFTRA members Tom Hanks, George Clooney, Jennifer Aniston and Regina King are throwing their support behind the union’s #StrikeBBH campaign to ensure fair wages and safe sets for actors who work on commercials. They join Rami Malek, Rachel Brosnahan, Scarlett Johansson, Octavia Spencer, Sterling K. Brown and Alec Baldwin in supporting the strike, issuing a joint statement that reads, “We stand united with our fellow performers who work in commercials, who seek fair wages, safe sets, access to health care and a meaningful pension. It’s time for advertisers and agencies like Bartle Bogle Hegarty, Inc. (BBH) to do the right thing. When you make an ad, make it union.” The ad agency is attempting to illegally abandon its union contract with SAG-AFTRA after almost 20 years.
“What you see here is our unity and strength as a membership,” said SAG-AFTRA President Gabrielle Carteris. “SAG-AFTRA members will continue standing up to demand safe working conditions, fair wages, and access to meaningful health and pension benefits for members and their families so that they may continue working with dignity under the union’s Commercials Contracts. BBH, we are not going anywhere.”
Additional members in support of #StrikeBBH include Steve Carell, Bryan Cranston, Michael Douglas, Tina Fey, Matthew McConaughey, Debra Messing, Elisabeth Moss, Tony Shalhoub, and J.K. Simmons, among many others.
To date, SAG-AFTRA has also received a massive outpouring of union support from other national and international unions such as the Actors’ Equity Association, ACTRA, Directors Guild of America, International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Local 47, American Federation of Musicians, Writers Guild of America West and Writers Guild of America, East.
SAG-AFTRA’s Commercials Contracts have more than 600 signatories, which collectively produce the vast majority of commercials that viewers see every day. BBH has been a signatory to the contract since 1999. In recent years, SAG-AFTRA has worked with ad agencies to update their contracts to reflect the ever-changing media landscape. Just last year, for instance, SAG-AFTRA created the Low Budget Digital Waiver specifically to address the industry’s desire to produce smaller budget digital work for social media platforms.
Bargaining for the 2019 Commercials Contracts is scheduled to commence Feb. 20 in New York. Members and the general public are encouraged to visit the BBH Strike Center to lend their name to the list of supporters.
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Note: SAG-AFTRA has no labor dispute with any person other than BBH.
About SAG-AFTRA
SAG-AFTRA represents approximately 160,000 actors, announcers, broadcast journalists, dancers, DJs, news writers, news editors, program hosts, puppeteers, recording artists, singers, stunt performers, voiceover artists and other entertainment and media professionals. SAG-AFTRA members are the faces and voices that entertain and inform America and the world. A proud affiliate of the AFL-CIO, SAG-AFTRA has national offices in Los Angeles and New York and local offices nationwide representing members working together to secure the strongest protections for entertainment and media artists into the 21st century and beyond. Visit SAG-AFTRA online at SAGAFTRA.org.