The union representing more than 160,000 Hollywood actors and performers is on the cusp of a strike. This morning, a negotiating committee with the Screen Actors Guild voted unanimously to recommend a walkout, after talks with a federal mediator aimed at hammering out a new labor contract failed at the 11th hour. Guild President Fran Drescher said in a statement, “The [Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers]'s responses to the union's most important proposals have been insulting and disrespectful of our massive contributions to this industry.” Hollywood writers have been on strike since May 2. Joelle Sellner, a writer who joined picket lines in Burbank, California, on Wednesday, says a walkout by actors will turn up pressure on big studios.

Joelle Sellner: “If SAG goes on strike, they lose their reality and game shows, and they’re going to really start to feel it, because right now they’ve stockpiled scripts, and they have things in the pipeline, things they think they can do without writers, and you really can’t do anything without actors.” 

Democracy Now! employees are represented by SAG-AFTRA but are covered by a different union contract than Hollywood actors.