Fran Drescher leads rally ahead of NYC Council vote supporting SAG strike

A City Council committee approved a pair of resolutions on Tuesday in support of striking SAG-AFTRA and Writers Guild of America workers in their pursuit of a fair contract — and one “flashy girl from Flushing” led a rally of workers at City Hall Park ahead of the vote.

SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher, widely recognized for her leading role in the 90s sitcom "The Nanny," gave another impassioned speech Tuesday before an assembly of local SAG-AFTRA and WGA members after delivering a viral address last month in which she announced the strike and excoriated Hollywood studios.

“As a kid growing up in Flushing, Queens, I dreamt about being a professional actor someday," she said. “But I never imagined that the show business that was so romanticized in the old movies of the 1930s and '40s in 2023 would actually be led by such greed-driven and disrespectful people for the performing artist.”

She said 86% of SAG members don't make the $26,500 threshold that would make them eligible for their health benefits.

"They are working people, who simply want to pay their rent and put food on the table,” she said.

Drescher was flanked by union members as well as elected officials, including Councilmember Tiffany Cabán, Rep. Dan Goldman and Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine.

She found a welcoming audience in the labor-friendly Council: The resolutions in support of the writers and actors were voted unanimously out of committee and the full Council is expected to approve them later this week.

Actors represented by SAG-AFTRA went on strike on July 14, following the WGA screenwriters’ decision to go on strike in May.

The two unions have not been on strike at the same time since 1960. Both are fighting for better pay, larger shares of streaming revenues and protections against encroaching artificial intelligence technologies.

Studios say their offers have included adequate pay increases and AI protections.

This story has been updated with the latest information. New York Public Radio has a contract with SAG-AFTRA, but our staff belongs to a different branch than the actors and is not involved in either strike.