Last night, the ongoing voice actors strike took a new turn as SAG-AFTRA announced it has filed an unfair labor practice complaint with the National Labor Relations Board targeting Riot Games’ League of Legends. The complaint is not really about Riot Games; it targets Formosa Interactive, the company Riot Games uses for voice acting outsourcing. Formosa is apparently a union signatory but has allegedly found a clever way to get around its obligations. Here’s SAG-AFTRA’s explanation:
“The complaint comes after Formosa tried to ‘cancel’ one of its struck video games shortly after the start of SAG-AFTRA’s video game strike. When they were told that was not possible, they secretly transferred the game to a shell company and sent out casting notices for ‘NON-UNION’ talent only. SAG-AFTRA charges that these serious actions are egregious violations of core tenets of labor law – that employers cannot interfere with performers’ rights to form or join a union and they cannot discriminate against union performers. The unilateral and surreptitious transfer of union work to a ‘non-union’ shell company is an impermissible and appalling attempt to evade a strike action and destroy performers’ rights under labor law.”
Consequently, the union is striking against LOL, “one of the company’s most high-profile games,” meaning that no SAG-AFTRA members can work on any League projects until the situation is resolved.
Formosa has denied the accusations. “We fully reject SAG-AFTRA’s allegations and have not acted in any manner to undermine employee or union rights, nor our relationship with the union. We believe the strike of League of Legends, a game unrelated to the union’s claims, is not appropriate,” it wrote in a statement on Variety. “We stand with developers, publishers, platform holders, and talent to support global game development in a way that is safe and ethical for all.”
Riot Games jumped on Twitter last night to disavow participation in Formosa’s alleged transgressions; it also doesn’t embrace the idea that Formosa hasn’t been contracted for League of Legends (a claim we saw floating on Reddit).
“League of Legends has nothing to do with the complaint mentioned in SAG-AFTRA’s press release. We want to be clear: since becoming a union project five years ago, League of Legends has only asked Formosa to engage with Union performers in the US and has never once suggested doing otherwise. In addition, we’ve never asked Formosa to cancel a game that we’ve registered. All of the allegations in SAG-AFTRA’s press release relating to canceling a game or hiring non-union talent relate to a non-Riot game, and have nothing to do with League or any of our games.”
Of course, Riot Games is notably absent from the list of studios that have thus far cooperated with SAG-AFTRA’s negotiations to secure AI protections for its members.
