When I was asked to speak on the Pop Culture Confidential podcast, we were only a week into the strike. If you live outside of Los Angeles, it is hard to overstate the physical toll of that period. While the media dubbed it the #HotLaborSummer, the reality on the ground was grueling; union members and strike captains were regularly collapsing from heat exhaustion on the picket lines.
If you saw photos of actors smiling on social media, you might have wondered if we were “too happy” to be on strike. But context matters. For many of us, this was the first time we had seen our colleagues in person since the 2020 lockdowns. Those early days were marked by a sense of relief and reunion—but make no mistake: no one was happy to be there. The Weight of the Room As you listen to the pod, keep in mind that our negotiations began in the final week of May 2023. By the time we officially walked out, we had already endured six weeks of closed-door sessions, grueling days of proposals and rebuttals, and a 12-day extension granted to the AMPTP. Unlike the 2020 negotiations, which lasted roughly eight weeks, 2023 felt like a marathon with no finish line in sight.I found myself in a unique position as the Chair of the L.A. Organizing Committee. Because SAG-AFTRA hadn’t executed a strike in 40 years, there was a perceptible lack of institutional experience. Leveraging my background with The Actor’s Network, I felt a responsibility to assist both staff and volunteers in navigating the logistical and emotional complexities of the line.
A Geographical Nightmare
Picketing in Los Angeles is a logistical feat. We targeted seven major studio locations—Disney, Warner Bros., Netflix, Sony, Amazon, and FOX—to maximize visibility and disruption. While cities like New York and Atlanta benefited from efficient public transit, our efforts were a constant battle against L.A. traffic. (Universal was notably absent from our rotation only because of strategically timed “sidewalk construction” that made the area unsafe for our members.)
The Reality of High-Stakes Bargaining
I often hear younger members say they want to join the negotiating committee because “it sounds like fun.” My response is simple: listen to this podcast and realize that you are holding the fate of 160,000 of your peers in your hands.
If you want to get involved, I encourage it—but do so with your eyes open. All union service, from our SAG/AFTRA President down to the local committee members, is strictly voluntary. We give our time for free because we believe in the cause, but it is a massive sacrifice of labor and ego.
The “Too Many Chefs” DilemmaOur committee consisted of 44 individuals, balancing a hybrid of in-person and Zoom presence. Managing 44 different levels of experience and strategy is inherently exhausting.
To put the scale of 2023 into perspective: in 2020, we negotiated roughly 22 contract items. In 2023, that list ballooned to 49—which, when broken down by our staff, actually represented closer to 150 individual items.
This was the most aggressive and economically vast negotiation package in SAG-AFTRA history. In that room, the art stops and the business begins.
Podcast Notes from Christina Birro (Interviewer):
364: The actors strike, an existential battle! On July 14th, more than 160,000 actors joined the screenwriters, on strike since May, for the first dual strike since the 1960s. We are joined by Kevin E. West, veteran TV actor with roles on shows including: The Righteous Gemstones Criminal Minds, Bones, Lost, CSI, and more), member of the SAG-AFTRA negotiating committee, author and founder of The Actor’s Network. Kevin takes us behind the scenes of the negotiations and talks about what is at stake in what the actors & writers are calling “an existential battle”
Here’s the link to the podcast with Christina Birro:
Pop Culture Confidential 364 with Kevin E. West