BOSTON (WHDH) - Union workers took to the streets with city and state leaders in Boston Monday, rallying support for the ongoing writers’ and actors’ strikes that have Hollywood on hold.
Monday’s demonstration took place in Downtown Crossing and followed a Labor Day breakfast backing workers rights in Boston where Gov. Maura Healey voiced her support for those on strike.
“We honor you and your courage and we stand with you in this fight,” Healey said.
“We’re dealing with something that’s not new,” said actor Daniel Washington. “It’s just the straw that broke the camel’s back.”
SAG-AFTRA represents thousands of actors currently on strike.
In Downtown Crossing, Sen. Elizabeth Warren was among those showing support.
“These artists, these creators, these storytellers are raising their voices and they are demanding the pay they deserve,” Warren said.
One of the biggest demands from union members has been more pay as actors and creators say their compensation simply isn’t keeping up with the cost of living.
“If rent weren’t so exorbitant, if food weren’t so exorbitant…we wouldn’t need it,” said SAG-AFTRA member Riti Sachdeva. “…If the cost of living is going up, we need more.”
Supporters say the income gap in the industry is far too wide, claiming that, while those at the top rake in millions of dollars each year, the average worker is barely making enough to live.
“Nearly 90% of SAG-AFTRA members,” Warren said, “are scraping by on less than $27,000 a year.”
Among concerns, SAG-AFTRA members have also been pushing back against new technology that they say takes money off the table for real people.
“Then you bring AI into the mix where now you take away entire paychecks that some people would have made for months and now they’re just going to work for a day and no longer own the right to their own image,” Washington said.
“It’s not about beating them as much as it is about fixing this machine that’s not working anymore,” Washington said of the companies SAG-AFTRA members are striking against. “Hopefully they hear that.”
Even with the SAG-AFTRA strike entering its eighth week, union members speaking with 7NEWS on Monday said, unless something changes, they are not planning to stop any time soon.
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