ATLANTA — Contract negotiations between the Screen Actors Guild and The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers are reaching a deadline Wednesday night.
The negotiations were extended from an initial June 30 deadline to give both sides more time at the bargaining table. Negotiators have until midnight to come to an agreement or a strike could be called for hundreds of thousands of SAG-AFTRA members.
The metro Atlanta impact would have wide ranging effects, according to Maya Gilbert-Dunbar, who is running for the union's national seat.
"We're talking about feeling it swift and hard if a strike is called because everything immediately shuts down. There is no work. You can't even do promos," said Gilbert-Dunbar.
According to the local chapter, there are over 3,000 union members in metro Atlanta. They would be out of work and businesses that depend on the film industry would suffer too.
However, Gilbert Dunbar said it might be necessary.
"They are not able to make a career out of something they love and we are seeing our gains being taken away from us. It's being reversed left and right. We're fighting just to survive at this point," said Gilbert-Dunbar.
Actress Jessica Luza said she's already feeling the impact of the ongoing writers' strike and believes a SAG-AFTRA strike would have more impact.
"The writers' strike... it shut down a show that I'm currently working on. It shutdown Bad Boys 4. It shutdown lots of things. They say that each day that something was shut down the studios were losing $200,000," said Luza.
On Tuesday, the union agreed to bringing in a federal mediator to help hash out a new deal between the two parties. If no deal can be reached, almost 200,000 members nationwide could walk off the job as early as Thursday.