No Strike! Voice Actors Settle

June 9, 2005 4:01 AM

It's official: the two unions representing videogame voice actors withdrew their demand of residuals and have accepted the offer made by videogame publishers. Just yesterday, the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) counted the mailed-in ballots from their members and apparently they did not have enough support to authorize a strike. Their only recourse was to accept a three and a half year contract offer that now gives voice actors the following benefits:

An immediate 25 percent increase in minimum wages from $556 to $695 for a four-hour session for up to three voices with increases in subsequent years, bringing the daily rate up to $759.
Double time pay after six hours (previously ten hours) for three-voice performers.
A 7.5 percent increase in contributions to the unions' benefits plans, bringing the rate up to 14.3 percent.
15-25 percent gains in rates for remote delivery and integration.
Payment to actors for reuse of performances in promotional films longer than 12 minutes.
A specified rest period for each hour spent recording.
Payment window shortened from 30 to 12 business days.
Pre-work notification to actors performing in stressful sessions.

The offer still needs approval in committee, but if approved, it'll last until the end of 2008. Even with all these new benefits, the unions are not satisfied and were clear in their message that they hope to build a stronger union to try again in 2009 to secure a "more fair" deal.

Alec Matias

From The Chatty

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[7]kami

 reply
June 9, 2005 4:05 AM

Holy shit, seems i picked the wrong profession. Getting paid that well for barking in another man's creative work is just plain sick. IMHO offcourse.
- lechuck59
  
   reply
  June 9, 2005 4:20 AM
  
  Well but they probably don't get that much work. I imagine a professional voice actor probably only spends one or two sessions to complete their work on a game. And to say that they have no creative effect is silly. We all appreciate and want good voice work in our games.
  - [7]kami
    
     reply
    June 9, 2005 5:19 AM
    
    Raising your fees to absurd levels does not help upping demand for decent voiceacting.
- kbnerd
  
   reply
  June 9, 2005 4:22 AM
  
  i know i've always wanted to make more then a hundred dollars an hour.
  - o0JediBeavis0o
    
     reply
    June 9, 2005 4:36 AM
    
    But what if you only worked 2 hours a week?
    - o0JediBeavis0o
      
       reply
      June 9, 2005 4:45 AM
      
      Reason I ask is because voice acting is pretty damned cut throat, and dedicated voice actors often have to fight with big name Hollywood talent for jobs. Either that or they just hire Frank Welker who could probably do just about every voice they need. Lots of voice actors/waiters out there.
    - kbnerd
      
       reply
      June 9, 2005 5:07 AM
      
      if i worked 2 hours a week that would be almost as much as i make now if i work 40 hours a week. seems like a good trade to me!
    - Speedy8
      
       reply
      June 9, 2005 6:17 AM
      
      You can still have another job while doing this work. I'm sure most of these voice actors don't do voice acting only.
      - aavenr
        
         reply
        June 9, 2005 8:05 AM
        
        Yup, that argument just blows. I mean come on, if you only get a couple of hours of work per week/month/year, that doesn't entitle you to charge astronomical fees. If anything, it means you are over your head pretending to make a living out of it. These people should be finding other sources of income rather than making the industry pay for their "3hrs/per week" career choice.
        
        And you wanted residuals? lol, what a joke!
  - [7]kami
    
     reply
    June 9, 2005 5:02 AM
    
    Hehe. Well, i work @ the darkside (marketing) so you won't hear me complain about my salary. It's just that i don't think you should pay someone that much for such a small contribution to a certain product.
    - te[R]ror
      
       reply
      June 9, 2005 5:24 AM
      
      contribution may be small but overall profits from such project are (could be) rather large
    - MikkleThePickle
      
       reply
      June 9, 2005 5:26 AM
      
      I respectfully disagree, voice acting can make or break a game
      - Vincent Grayson
        
         reply
        June 9, 2005 6:23 AM
        
        Voice acting very rarely "makes" a game that wouldn't otherwise be good without it, but seems to consistently ruin, or at least, make worse, a large number of games.
- Dynotaku
  
   reply
  June 9, 2005 5:14 AM
  
  Yeah I know, $759/hr and double time pay after 6 hours? Time to hit up the want ads for job postings.
  
  "Well they probably don't get a lot of work"
  
  Yeah, well chances are they can swing a second job too.
  - captfarrell
    
     reply
    June 9, 2005 5:26 AM
    
    no, that's for the 4 hours, so close to $200/hr
  - spector
    
     reply
    June 9, 2005 12:54 PM
    
    it says for 3 voices, im not sure if that means 3 voices from the same person or 3 people
    - cajuncook
      
       reply
      June 9, 2005 1:22 PM
      
      The hyphen denotes three voices from the same performer, I think.