Members of Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) have overwhelmingly approved merging their unions into one, SAG/AFTRA, the unions announced this afternoon in Los Angeles.
The SAG/AFTRA merger approval required a 60 percent vote from each union. AFTRA members approved the merger by 86 percent and SAG members voted 82 percent in favor of the merger. AFTRA has some 70,000 members in the entertainment and news industries while SAG represents about 125,000 actors.
Months of discussions of the merger between the two unions included a “listening tour” by SAG President Ken Howard and AFTRA President Roberta Reardon. The two will now serve as co-presidents of the new union.