Trying For Leverage

... but having a time of it.

Unable to get video game producers to meet their demands at the bargaining table – and unwilling to carry through with their threat to call a strike – SAG-AFTRA instead has “promulgated” a new low-budget contract and is hoping that some video game producers will sign it. Few are expected to, however. ...

The union’s chief demand all along has been for a type of residuals for voice performers based on sales. During the negotiations, the union was asking for backend bonuses for voice actors that would be triggered once a game sells 2 million units. ...

The issue before us, ladies and gentlemen, is one of leverage.

SAG-AFTRA has residuals for television and motion pictures because they achieved them back when the playing field was more level. Movie studios were high profile companies in the fifties and sixties, but not pieces of monster, international conglomerates. (That came during the age of the Great Mergers ... where all the movie companies were gobbled up by other companies and became bigger, and BIGGER, and BIGGER.)

And since Games is a new, gargantuan and unorganized part of the entertainment industry. SAG-AFTRA is having a bit of trouble getting an effective contract in place.

Here's hoping it gets better.