Members of the Hollywood actors’ union SAG-AFTRA voted 98.3% in favor of a strike if negotiations with video game companies, which begin today, fail.
“It’s time for video game companies to stop playing games and get serious about reaching an agreement on this contract,” SAG-AFTRA Chairman Fran Drescher said in a statement released Monday.
Negotiations between the union and video game companies are expected to begin today and last until Thursday.
The decision comes almost a year after the collective labor agreement was extended to allow for further discussions.
SAG-AFTRA said it will fight for “acceptable terms” for its members on issues such as wages in line with inflation, protection against artificial intelligence and “basic security measures.”
Among the companies that would be affected by a strike are Epic Games, maker of the game Fortnite, Disney Character Voices Inc., Blindlight, responsible for the game Halo, and WB Games Inc, maker of the game Mortal Kombat 11.
SAG-AFTRA explained in a statement that 34,687 union members participated in the vote, representing 27.47% of eligible actors.
SAG-AFTRA has been on strike for more than two months against AMPTP (Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers), a group that represents Hollywood studios and platforms such as Netflix, Amazon, Apple, Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, NBC Universal, Paramount and Sony.
On Sunday, the screenwriters’ union, the WGA (Writers Guild of America) and the AMPTP announced an agreement in principle to end a historic strike that has lasted almost five months.
The agreement, which will last three years, was reached after a marathon five days of negotiations and must be approved by the WGA leadership and 11,500 members before the strike officially ends.
The commitment the studios have made to screenwriters includes an increase in the minimum wage, extra bonuses for those who write the highest-rated shows and ways to ensure artificial intelligence is used without impacting their pay.
Once the strike ends, productions such as talk shows can return.
However, Hollywood’s television and film industry will remain far from normal as the actors’ strike will continue and negotiations between SAG-AFTRA and the studios have not resumed.
SAG-AFTRA’s demands go beyond those of the WGA, including granting actors a real percentage of benefits regardless of content, with difficult negotiations expected.
Actors want to receive residual payments in the streaming model through platforms such as Netflix.
Previously, these payments were given to artists from revenue from series or films licensed for international markets or television rebroadcasts.
The strike of screenwriters and actors in Hollywood has already cost California about five billion dollars (4.7 billion euros), according to the Milken Institute.
Source: DN
