Year-long video game voice actor strike reaches its conclusion
After a whole year, the video game voice actor strike has finally reached its conclusion.
The strike started a year ago, with many of the voice actors being discontented and unhappy with their current work environments. They joined the strike to make a difference, and while it took an entire year, their voices were eventually heard.
The strike ended earlier in November, and according to game news website Polygon, the Screen Actors Guild‐American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), an organization which represents many of the voice actors involved in the strike, announced that the voice actors had finally made an agreement with the companies. They would be compensated better and would be given better working conditions among other things.
Reportedly, a large majority of the voice actors were happy with the compromise and the strike came to an end.
The brand new agreements included bonuses for the actors depending on their sessions, more ability to negotiate with their employers in terms of what role they'll be playing or receiving, and more transparency in regards to future projects.
Polygon also brought up something called "transparency provisions."
Reportedly this would allow voice actors to learn about all of the job requirements involved in a role before they accepted it. This was created to enhance the bargaining power of the voice actors and give them more leverage and choices in terms of roles and whether or not they want to do a specific one.
The strike started in October 2016, and according to Ars Technica, it is one of the longest voice actor strikes in US history. The strike was aimed at 11 major developers including Electronic Arts (EA), Disney, Warner Bros, and more.
Due to the strike, many of these companies were forced to find new voice actors for their ongoing projects. Other companies who weren't the main target also had to go through the same process.
