He Screen Actors Guild of America (SAG-AFTRA) has reached an agreement in principle with the big Hollywood studios and streaming platforms for the signing of a new collective agreement. This marks the end of a strike that has lasted 118 days.

“Our strike has officially ended and all picketing has been suspended (…) We have reached an agreement that will allow SAG-AFTRA members of all categories to build sustainable careers,” the union reported in a statement.

The SAG-AFTRA negotiating committee approved the agreement in a unanimous vote Wednesday and the strike will end at 12:01 a.m. Thursday local time. The agreement still has to be ratified by the union’s board of directors and members, and once that happens details of the contract will be announced which will govern the next three years of the working relationship between SAG-AFTRA and the studios represented by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP).

However, the union has announced that they have achieved an agreement “of extraordinary scope” that includes increases in minimum wages“unprecedented provisions” that will protect performers from the threat of artificial intelligence (AI), as well as “the establishment of a participation premium for streaming.”

The studios, for their part, also celebrated the agreement, calling it a “new paradigm” and indicated that they are ready for the “industry to resume the work of telling great stories,” according to AMPTP in a statement.

In the last few hours, the AMPTP had insisted on the actors’ union to make a decision as soon as possible and thus be able to try to save the television season or advance the 2024 film schedule.

Executives from entertainment companies such as Disney, Amazon, Warner Bros. Discovery and Netflix were involved in the negotiations.

The actors joined the strike carried out by the US Writers Guild of America (WGA) on July 14, in search of better working conditions, increases in the financial remuneration that the actors receive when broadcasting their content in streaming services, as well as regulation in the use of artificial intelligence (AI).

These last points were some of the issues that kept the parties apart.

Last Monday SAG-AFTRA assured that they still disagreed on several “essential points” of what the studies called their “last, best and definitive” proposal, and in response the AMPTP agreed to make modifications on issues such as AI.

The strike of both unions, the first joint strike in 60 years, affected prominent productions such as the premiere of films “Dune: Part Two”, by Denis Villeneuve, postponed the presentation of awards such as the Emmys, paralyzed the production of films in development such as “Gladiator 2” or “Deadpool 3” and stopped the promotion of various titles.

“We are excited to see SAG-AFTRA members win an agreement that creates new protections for performers and provides greater participation in the immense value they create. When workers unite, they win,” WGA wrote through its account of X (formerly Twitter).

For his part, actor Jeremy Allen White, star of the series “The Bear”, said that after his time on the red carpet of “The Iron Claw”, even without knowing the terms of the agreement reached, he was “very happy” and convinced that SAG-AFTRA had achieved what its members wanted.

Talks between studios and Hollywood performers intensified more than two weeks ago. Before this, they had approached positions at the end of September, when the US Writers Guild of America (WGA, in English) concluded its strike, but then another unexpected impasse occurred that cooled relations even further.

With the end of the strike, the actors could resume their jobs on Thursday, as well as participate in the promotion of films and television series.

The historic strike carried out by SAG-AFTRA and the Writers Guild of America (WGA), which reached an agreement with AMPTP at the end of September, has meant losses of 6.5 billion dollars for the Californian economy and the dismissal of 45,000 workers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (US Department of Labor).