Game companies launch countermeasures against striking voice actor union with website

October 31, 2016 10:30 AM

A coalition of companies targeted by the voice actor strike ongoing since earlier this month have created a website to argue their point of view that “this is a strike that did not have to happen” and suggesting that union members haven’t been made properly aware of the terms their leaders have rejected. The site claims to represent Activision, Disney, and EA, among others and possesses detailed information about the negotiations as they unraveled.

SAG-AFTRA, which has been negotiating since February of 2015, demands better baseline and secondary compensation (including the potential for residual payments on the highest-grossing games) and job transparency, among other requests. It instructed its members to strike following what it called an unsuccessful last attempt at an agreement with video game studios on October 21st.

The management coalition, however, contends on its incredibly confusingly named website that its final counteroffer was fair, posting that its proposed “structure for Additional Compensation is so close to what SAG-AFTRA is demanding monetarily that [it] believe[s] most performers would conclude the differences are not worth striking over.”

Notably, the studios continued to reject the “additional compensation” proposal, which would entitle actors to payments akin to royalties based on how well the game sells.

SAG-AFTRA has expressed anger over the website’s apparent misuse of its name and what it’s calling “deception.” The union’s attorneys have already demanded that the studios’ representatives remove the website on the grounds that “both domain name and Twitter handle incorporate [their] client’s federally registered SAG-AFTRA” and that “both the domain name and Twitter handle are improperly linked to websites providing deceptive and inaccurate information regarding SAG-AFTRA’s strike with the video game companies.”

Source: SAGAFTRAVideoGames.com via GI.biz