It's hosting so many commercials that the guilds there have relaxed strict rules about importing talent from below the border. To SAG strikers, performers in these commercials are, simply, scabs. We're going to remember what actors up there are doing. Casting directors have called actors at home and urged them to cross the line under aliases. Production companies have also been caught taking out city permits under false pretenses.
Any strike affects people beyond the strikers and their employers.
Producers and casting directors are trying to conduct business as usual, especially as the normally flush season for shooting Christmas and Super Bowl spots begins. But New York's major commercial agents are not showing off their Crest smiles. Signatories to the SAG contract, they cannot work on non-union projects. That's 'cause my other line ain't ringing. We had to let her go, to another part of the company.