Members of the Screen Actors Guild‐American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) are threatening to strike against eleven game industry employers in a protest seeking changes to their contracts.
According to a post from the guild, unless changes are made to voice acting contracts, members will start a strike on Friday against the following employers:
- Activision Publishing, Inc.
- Blindlight, LLC
- Corps of Discovery Films
- Disney Character Voices, Inc.
- Electronic Arts Productions, Inc.
- Formosa Interactive, LLC
- Insomniac Games, Inc.
- Interactive Associates, Inc.
- Take 2 Interactive Software
- VoiceWorks Productions, Inc.
- WB Games, Inc.
The formal strike notice lists issues such as extensive and lengthy intensive vocal sessions as well as a lack of stunt coordinators on site for performances as cause for the collective action. They also cite a lack of back-end payment for jobs such as residual payments. This is not the first time voice actors have threatened to strike.
“Based on past experience, we are not confident management is willing to make the changes necessary to bring this contract up to the standards of our other agreements,” the guild elaborated in their post announcing the strike. Kotaku has reached out to the guild for additional comment.
A statement by a coalition of employers working with SAG-AFTRA was released today as well.
“We are deeply disappointed to learn today of the Union’s threatened strike and its unilateral violation of the mutually agreed upon ‘news black-out’ on negotiation discussions,” the joint statement said.
Update—8:50 p.m SAG-AFTRA representation has replied to Kotaku with the following statement:
“We are surprised to hear that the video game companies with whom we have been negotiating for nearly two years now assert that progress is being made on the major concerns we are focused on in this negotiation. We look forward to hearing their thoughts on the crucial issues of performer safety and fair compensation that we have put forward.”
It is unclear if an agreement between the two parties will be reached before the strike starts on Friday.