Equity gives update on AI dispute with Pact as potential actors’ strike looms
UK performers’ union Equity has said that a potential strike over artificial intelligence (AI) protections would be “incredibly disruptive” to the domestic TV industry, unless producers’ body Pact returns to the negotiating table to resolve the growing dispute.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s The Media Show this week, Equity’s general secretary, Paul W Fleming gave the latest on the union’s position, with the UK on the brink of its first major AI-related industrial dispute in TV and film.
This comes after Equity balloted members in December on strike action over unresolved issues in its negotiations with Pact.
The indicative ballot saw Equity ask performers whether they were prepared to refuse to be digitally scanned on set to secure adequate AI protections. The ballot closed just before Christmas, with TV and film workers voting ‘Yes’ by a landslide 99.6%.
In 2023, members of Equity’s sister union, SAG-AFTRA, comprising actors who work in film and TV in the US, went on strike for four months over issues including AI protections.
Equity and Pact have for months been working on a UK framework modelled on this deal, which secured critical AI protections around consent, compensation and transparency, preventing the use of digital replicas without fair pay and explicit permission.
The two remain locked in a stalemate, with AI a key sticking point in the discussions to set minimum standards for pay, terms and conditions for performers working in the sector. The terms were last negotiated in 2021.
Following the result of the ballot, Equity has again contacted Pact, demanding that they come back to the negotiating table with a better deal on AI. If Pact refuse to enshrine the AI protections the union is seeking in the agreements, Equity has said it will hold a statutory ballot for industrial action.
Equity wants to protect performers’ rights when it comes to working with digital replicas (digital copies of real performers) and synthetic performers (artificially generated performers).
Producers, however, have balked at the additional administrative and legal burden this would create at a time when the UK production sector is already suffering from an industry contraction and a sharp commissioning downturn.
Pact’s stance is that in some types of production, such as those using special effects, scanning has taken place for many years, long before the rise of generative AI tech. The producers’ body also believes cast are sufficiently informed when and where they are being scanned, most commonly for editing purposes, and producers abide by the legal requirements for the treatment of those scans.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s The Media Show on Wednesday, Fleming said: “We don’t have particular confidence in that approach. Pact, when scrutinised, can’t really tell us how that data is being used.
“Their principal argument in negotiation is: ‘The technology you’re talking about doesn’t yet exist. The technology you’re talking about isn’t yet widely used.’ In independent British production, they’re probably right, but American productions use these agreements as the baseline, and where the Americans start everything else will follow.
“What we want is a framework to ensure that these technologies can develop with the workforce involved. If they develop without the regulation of a collective agreement, then we’re going to be behind the time.
“Pact will be saying in three years’ time: ‘Well, this is a normal part of your working lives. Why have you got a problem with it now?’ We are proactively attempting to create a system of remuneration and consent that can allow these technologies to develop ethically – not with the exclusion of the workforce.”
When SAG-AFTRA went on strike over issues including AI in the US, production in Hollywood ground to a near halt from July to November of 2023. Its duration overlapped significantly with that year’s Writers Guild of America walkouts.
Equity has warned that a strike over AI in the UK could be similarly turbulent for the UK production sector.
“Scanning is a part of everyday life now, although Pact sometimes thinks it isn’t, so it [a strike] will be incredibly disruptive,” Fleming said. “The pace of change has been exponential, and the agreements haven’t yet caught up with it.
“Artists are arriving on set and being told, ‘Get in the booth, here’s a rider you need to sign. You can’t talk to the union or your agent,’ and it’s all done in a flash. People need underlying protections to mean that they’re not bounced into it.
“You can’t do special effects anymore without the use of AI. And if our members decline to be scanned, that work is going to stop. 95% of British productions are on these agreements which are under threat. The producers need to come back to the table with a decent offer by January 19.”
A Pact spokesperson told C21:“The majority of productions don’t scan cast. In some types of production (such as those with SFX), scanning has taken place for many years – long before new technologies like Generative AI. Cast are informed when and why they are being scanned – most commonly for editing purposes. Producers abide by the legal requirements for the treatment and storage of scans.
“During the recent negotiations, Pact offered Equity terms on AI consistent with those that are in place in other countries. Equity is asking for future-facing protections that extend beyond the established safeguards already proven to protect actors around the world.
“Pact has assured Equity that we will keep the dialogue open as things develop so we can have an informed discussion.”
