Saturday Night Live Postproduction Team will strike during the April 1 show
‘Saturday Night Live’ Post-Production Editors to Strike April 1 Show (EXCLUSIVE) https://t.co/TixgoA81mp
- Variety (@Variety) March 9, 2023
• Unless the team and their union reach a satisfactory agreement with NBCUniversal, the SNL post-production editors at SNL are going on strike Saturday, April 1. This is the first time in the 48 year history of SNL that the show has ever experienced a show-specific strike.
• The team voted to authorize the strike on January 12 but continued to work on the show, producing some of the most well received and popular sketches of the season including "Jake from State Farm" from the Michael B. Jordan episode and "HBO Mario Kart Trailer" from the Pedro Pascal episode. SNL released a behind the scenes video on the making of the Mario Kart trailer that prominently featured the kind of work the postproduction team does in just six days.
• During the February 4 Pedro Pascal show cast members Colin Jost, James Austin Johnson, Andrew Dismukes, Sarah Sherman and Bowen Yang wore "Contract Now" shirts during the on-camera goodnights, while several other cast members have supported the team via Instagram. The Variety article notes that several craftspeople, many of whom have worked on the show for decades, have also been wearing "Contract Now" shirts to work.
• There is a show scheduled to air on April 1, but the host hasn't been announced and it is not yet known whether the writers (members of the WGA), the cast members (members of SAG) or the crew (members of IATSE and various other unions), will be striking alongside the postproduction team.
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SNL’s editorial team is paid far below industry standards. Assistant Editors receive just a fraction of what their counterparts on union shows earn.
After months of negotiations, NBCU still hasn’t agreed to address the crew’s concerns, or even to guarantee maintenance pic.twitter.com/jfud0hZwpi
- MPEG (Editors Guild) (@MPEG700) March 9, 2023
• The Editors Guild posted an infographic and thread about the situation in which they state that the SNL team is paid far below industry standards and in the months since unionizing, NBCUniversal have failed to address concerns and haven't even "guarantee[d] maintenance of current health benefits"
• The video goes on to say, "Not only is NBCU saying no to the union's reasonable proposals, but by offering annual increases that lag behind industry standards, they're pushing for a deal that ignores the soaring cost of living and moves the crew backward in future years."
• The video also reveals that NBCU is refusing to agree to retroactive wage increases and are insisting on a "management's rights" clause that would "strip union employees of their right to negotiate over workplace rules and policies."
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