In Hawaii, striking actors and writers gather in solidarity amid call for better pay

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – As the summer box office season picks up, Hollywood remains essentially shut down.

The actors union strike is now entering its second week.

And on Monday, a Hawaii’s Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists contingent gathered in solidarity with members of the Writers Guild of America.

“They’re not asking for the moon,” said SAG-AFTRA member Dennis Chun. “They’re asking for some decency and respect here on Earth. That’s why i’m proud to stand with them.”

With 50 years in the industry and appearances in “Hawaii 5-0″ and “Magnum PI,” Dennis Chun is a veteran actor. While he’s enjoyed success, the vast majority of SAG-AFTRA members are everyday workers and a reliable paycheck is a struggle.

He says just to qualify for health insurance, actors must make $26,000 in a year.

Some 86% of union members make less than that.

“You gotta make sure you got your rent paid,” Chun said.

“Yeah, you did a show and you got a $600 residual check that comes in that gotta last five months or you working some other job. It’s a hard life, but it’s a life we love.”

Chun is one of 1,200 SAG-AFTRA members in Hawaii and one of the 160,000 nationwide seeking what they call a fair contract with better compensation, streaming residuals, and protections surrounding artificial intelligence.

“With the coming of AI, there’s even less opportunities because they’ll be able to clone all these images here,” Chun said. “They’ll be able to clone all of them. put them into their cameras and be able to use them for all eternity and they’ll pay each of them one day’s work.”

The Writers Guild of America has been waging a similar battle since early May, when thousands went on the picket line.

“We are all asking for a very reasonable piece of the pie to keep feeding our families and to keep doing the things that we love,” said WGA member Noah Evslin.

“For the most part, being able to do a job without having to do a second, third, or fourth job just to do the job that we all do and we do it well.”

Both unions are trying to negotiate with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers — talks which haven’t led to much progress.

AMPTP has said SAG-AFTRA dismissed an offer of “historic pay” and “residual increases” and reports say it doesn’t plan on resuming negotiations with WGA till the fall.

“It’s painful,” Evslin said. “It’s painful. We come here and we talk about, Lilo and Stitch talks about ohana. The feeling of family. We’re in Hawaii and there is no ohana. there is no family.”

The Hawaii chapter of SAG-AFTRA will be holding a rally Tuesday afternoon at the State Capitol.

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