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Saturday Night Live Postproduction Team Votes to Authorize Strike

NBC's Saturday Night Live might need to go back to being REALLY live if SNL's postproduction workers end up going on strike.

Unless NBC management can come to terms with the union group representing the long-running late-night sketch comedy/music series' postproduction workers (approximately 20 part-time film editors, editors, assistant editors & media managers), NBC's Saturday Night Live might have to go back to being "live" like back in the old days. Earlier today, reports surfaced that the union has authorized a strike in the hope of accelerating contract negotiations with NBCUniversal's labor team. The move comes a little more than three months after the group unionized with the IATSE-affiliated Motion Picture Editors Guild back in October 2022. Since that time, there has reportedly been only one bargaining session with no future meetings scheduled, with the union sending a rundown of its proposals (which reportedly address wages & working conditions) a month before the year wrapped.

"The film workers at 'SNL' last year made it clear they want a union, and management acknowledged their wishes. Therefore it's very disappointing that despite the Guild's best efforts, there is still no framework for a contract in place," The Editors Guild's national executive director Cathy Repola released in a statement. "We remain committed to getting a contract in place as soon as possible and leave all options on the table to achieve that goal." While the vote authorizing a strike doesn't necessarily mean that there will be one, it does give the union additional leverage in negotiations. The members of the negotiating union are responsible for postproduction work on pre-taped sketches, which means there would be a serious rollback on commercial parodies, music videos, and more."We feel that the NBCUniversal labor team that is on the other side of the table to this just have not really responded in a timely manner or in a substantial manner, really, to address data points that were submitted to them," shared one member of the bargaining team with THR under the promise of anonymity. 

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