Ken Howard, president of the Screen Actors Guild, took time out of Sunday night’s televised SAG Awards to announce that the union’s board had reached an agreement with AFTRA, which represents thousands of TV journalists, to merge the two organizations.

“This weekend, our boards have overwhelmingly endorsed a plan for the merger of SAG and AFTRA,” Howard told those in the awards show audience, as well as viewers watching at home.

“We have been hard at work in creating a plan for a single union that will give our members maximum strength throughout the entertainment and media industries,” he said. “And I am so proud to say that that historic moment of unity is at hand.”

The proposed merger is now up for a vote by the unions’ members.