Why SAG President Fran Drescher Is Being Criticized for Italian Fashion Trip with Kim Kardashian as Strike Looms

With just hours to go before Hollywood actors potentially go on strike, SAG-AFTRA's president Fran Drescher has attracted some criticism from her peers.

Drescher, 65, traveled to Italy last weekend for a promotional event with the fashion brand Dolce & Gabbana. The Nanny actress was spotted at the event after she appeared in a photo Kim Kardashian shared to her Instagram Story on Monday, according to Variety.

"My union president chilling in Italy while we’re in the middle of negotiations and about to go on strike," Insidious: The Last Key actor Kirk Acevedo wrote on Twitter in response to Drescher's photo with Kardashian. "We’re asking to be better compensated by the studios and Fran Drescher is mugging for cameras in Italy. The optics look f------ terrible."

"This is a really bad f------ look, @frandrescher," Perry Mason actor Eric Lange wrote on Twitter. "It’s astonishing that, on the eve of a likely strike, while people are losing their homes, their health insurance, etc you’re partying it up with Kim in Italy. Astonishing and indefensible."

SAG-AFTRA said in a statement shared with Variety Monday that Drescher's attendance at the event "was a commitment fully known to the negotiating committee" as she continued to work with the union's negotiating committee ahead of Wednesday's 11:59 p.m. Pacific time deadline to reach agreements on new contracts with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.

According to the statement, Drescher expected to return to Los Angeles for further negotiations on Tuesday.

"She has been in negotiations every day either in person or via videoconference," the statement reads, per the outlet. "President Drescher is managing a physically demanding schedule across three time zones, overseeing negotiations and working on location daily as well as managing her parents’ needs in [Florida]."

Representatives for Drescher did not immediately respond to PEOPLE's request for comment Wednesday.

Actress Maya Dunbar, who is currently running against Drescher to take her place as the union's president, told Deadline that Drescher's choice to attend the event served as "a clear example of how out of touch the President is with the majority of the rank-and file-membership."

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“While most members are currently wondering if there’s going to be a strike, and how they’ll pay the rent, their dues and afford to provide for their families during the worst economic stability in recent years, she’s off taking pics with celebrities widely known and shamed for crossing WGA picket lines,' Dunbar told the outlet in a statement.

The actors' union and the AMPTP agreed to have last-minute negotiations Thursday supervised by a mediator appointed by the federal government, the union shared in a statement Tuesday.