Earlier this week, a tentative deal between the Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers was reached that could, if successfully voted on, bring an end to one ongoing media-related strike action. But now, another group may be on the verge of a massive entertainment strike: video game actors.
Just last night, members of Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) voted to authorize a strike as a part of the resumption of bargaining over the guild’s Interactive Media Agreement - which governs voice, motion capture, and other actors working in video games. While this doesn’t mean that a strike is currently happening, it means that SAG-AFTRA negotiators returned to the bargaining table today with the power to call one if negotiations continue to stagnate.
It’s not a decision the group takes lightly, but Interactive Negotiating Committee Chair Sarah Elmaleh and member Zeke Alton say they feel it’s a necessary one. Negotiations between SAG-AFTRA and these companies (which include Activision, EA, Epic, Take-Two, WB Games, and more) have stagnated over the last year, and the ability to call a strike could apply enough pressure to get a deal done. According to Elmaleh, five separate attempts to bargain over a new contract thus far have resulted in “no meaningful, productive counters on these key issues that we need to make a deal.”
What are those key issues that major gaming companies are so reluctant to budge on? Elmaleh and Alton outline three to pay attention to. The first two, Alton explains, are extremely similar to the issues that SAG-AFTRA is currently negotiating (and actively striking over) in its TV, theatrical, and streaming contracts. One would involve setting in stone pay increases to keep up with inflation and set continued raises in the next two years of the contract. And another is a need for protection against the encroachment of AI technology. “We want to ensure that they don't replace all the humans with computers,” Alton explains. “Not a prohibition on it, but just as we move forward with the technology, how do we move with it and not get left behind.”
The third key issue, Elmaleh says, is unique to interactive media: the guild wants mandatory breaks and set medics for on-camera performers. Under the current contract, voice actors receive a five-minute rest break per hour, but on-camera performers have no such guarantee. Additionally, there is no requirement for a set medic to be present when performers are conducting hazardous stunts. If someone is injured, Elmaleh says, “Someone can probably get you to a close hospital, but we absolutely have to have someone there to assess the situation when someone's hurt themselves, to see if they need hospital care and to apply pre-hospital care so they can make it to the hospital.”
Hot Labor Summer Continues
This is not the first time SAG-AFTRA has been on strike over video game contracts. The guild was on strike for 11 months back in 2016 over issues such as residuals, vocal stress, and contract transparency. Elmaleh says that last time, the guild did win some important victories in this area, but it was “not what they went in to get.” This time, she says, SAG-AFTRA has learned from the previous strike, and “cannot afford to settle on” the terms it’s asking for now.
Alton adds that from the perspective of the actors, the terms they’re asking for aren’t radical - he says they’re effectively just asking to maintain the status quo. “We're asking to not take a real dollar pay cut,” he says. “Why is that unreasonable? We're asking for basic safety precautions to protect human lives. Why is that unreasonable? And we're asking to maintain a profession and not try to take the rights to completely obliterate that profession. Why is that unreasonable? Because to be honest, you can ask us that all day and it doesn't make sense to us because what we're asking for is completely reasonable.”
SAG-AFTRA’s latest round of negotiations is taking place in the midst of a renewed, growing public awareness of unions and labor issues, especially in entertainment. Alongside the WGA’s actions, SAG-AFTRA is also currently striking against the AMPTP over similar terms, and still has yet to reach a tentative agreement. Games in particular, too, have seen a wave of unionization interest in recent years, with multiple major studios seeing union elections. Elmaleh tells me that while all this is new for gaming, interest in unions itself is hardly a novel idea. When productivity and profit increase and wages stagnate, she says, then history just repeats itself.
“Also, folks are also waking up to the fact that unions, union proposals, and negotiations are often about so much more than just wages,” she continues. “Our package is full of working conditions and other things that make work safe and sustainable. But when you see these pressures build on workers, eventually they wake up and they read their history and they look around and they realize that pooling their leverage together allows them to act as a meaningful, powerful counterforce in capitalism to the folks with the most money and the fewest populace taking everything. I think that this will always happen. This cycle will always repeat itself, and it's been exciting to see that awareness and solidarity grow, even in our space and games, since the last strike.”
Next in Line
For gamers, it might be easy to dismiss SAG-AFTRA’s concerns, even if the strike disrupts game production schedules. But for those inclined to hand-wave the situation, Alton has a warning he wants to share, specifically with regards to the AI issues the guild is fighting for: “You’re next.”
“We're having the argument now specifically about these AI algorithms and they are wiping out large portions of the workforce,” he says. “And so if we lose that and set the precedent for corporations to remove the lower levels of their workforce using algorithms, that then proliferates into every workforce on the planet, and that can have disastrous results for the economy and for society as a whole. That's why this is an existential fight, not just for us, but to anybody else out there watching: you're next. And would you like to have the precedent of being protected or the precedent of being removed?”
With a strike on the table, Alton and Elmaleh urge those interested in more information or actively supporting actors to keep an eye on SAG-AFTRA official channels for guidance on what the union is actually asking for. And even without a strike, Elmaleh urges gamers to “be vocal” about solidarity, because companies do take notice - and it helps the actors feel supported within the gaming community they love so much.
Alton adds an additional ask: “Get educated.”
“In the past 40 years, corporate America has been really successful in vilifying unions. The word union is a bad word. It's like organized crime. Get educated. What is the union for? If we didn't ever have unions, you wouldn't have these weird things like weekends or overtime or bathroom breaks. And we're seeing now in places like Amazon warehouses where workers are not afforded bathroom breaks, it's pee in a bottle, and [bathroom breaks are] what unions give us. Unions are good. Two, unions are us. Get to know what that is and when you realize it's us, spread and support the message.”
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
Blogroll image credit: Michael Buckner/Variety via Getty Images
