Contract Battle

Not ours, but others'.

Members of SAG-AFTRA have voted overwhelmingly to give their leaders the authority to call a strike against the video game industry, which is expected to rake in more than $20 billion this year in the U.S. alone. The strike-authorization vote comes after negotiations for a new contract broke off in June. ...

Comes down to leverage, as it so often does. ...

We've had some rugged negotiations over the years, but the video game - SAG-AFTRA negotiations are on a WHOLE different level. Like for instance this corporate proposal.

Our companies ... are seeking onerous sanctions against agents who refuse to send their clients to certain auditions.

“Our employers propose to fine your agent $50,000-$100,000 if they don’t send you out on certain auditions, like Atmospheric Voices or One Hour-One Voice sessions,” the union told its members. “And if your agent chooses not to submit you for certain auditions, the employers want it put into contract language that SAG-AFTRA will revoke the agent’s union franchise." ...

Wow. Like wow. And then this:

[Companies seek] reductions in fees that would “roll back the gains we’ve made in previous contracts” and $2,500 fines against actors who are not “attentive to the services for which they have been engaged.” The guild told its members that “this means you could be fined for almost anything: checking an incoming text, posting to your Twitter feed, even zoning out for a second.”

Yeah. $2,500 fines for cat-napping at a session seem like a dandy idea. That would probably wipe out any wages that an actor received.

But we know what this is about, don't we? This is about not having a contract anymore.