A massive coalition of the biggest video game publishing companies which includes the likes of Activision, Disney, Electronic Arts, and Take-Two have officially launched a website at sagaftravideogames.com which criticises the SAG-AFTRA union that represents striking voice and motion capture actors as a form of retaliation towards the currently on going strike. The site states that the differences between the two sides were close to negligible, and that the union “never communicated what was on the table” to its head membership ahead of making the decision to walk away from negotiations.
The site states:
Our offer of a 9% wage increase accelerates the entire payment into the first year – an improvement over the three-year, 3% per year increase that the Union was seeking. It also includes for the first time Additional Compensation for Principal Performers (who work on more than one session on a game). This structure for Additional Compensation is so close to what SAG-AFTRA is demanding monetarily that we believe most performers would conclude the differences are not worth striking over.
The site mentioned offers a complete informative breakdown of exactly what the union is asking for and what the game companies are ready to hand out. These offers include wage increases, transparency, and relief from vocal stress. It even goes so far as to include a handy colour coded comparison chart for your industrial dispute edification. There are also several links to video game publisher friendly news articles and tweets from the SAG-AFTRA Video games handle. But it’s the blatantly visible effort to drive a wedge between union members and its leadership here that really stands out.
The site further includes:
SAG-AFTRA: Let your members vote on the Companies’ proposal, a prolonged strike only benefits non-union video game producers and non-union performance interests within the video game industry. It will also discourage the unorganised majority of developers and publishers from working with SAG-AFTRA in the future.
We’ll keep you updated as this story develops and hope along side that the dispute gets resolved. Stay tuned.
