SAG-AFTRA video game actors will mark the start of the fourth week since declaring a strike with a picket line against Disney on Thursday, Aug. 15.
Participants will demonstrate outside Disney Character Voices, located at 2600 W. Olive Avenue in Burbank (91505), from 9:00 a.m. to noon. There are parking structures located nearby on Frederick, as well as 2-hour street parking available in various nearby locations.
The picket line will be attended by Interactive Media Agreement Negotiating Committee chair Sarah Elmaleh and committee members Andi Norris, Seth Allyn Austin as well as SAG-AFTRA leadership including National Executive Director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland. Other SAG-AFTRA members, labor allies and video game fans are expected as well.
The guild’s video game performers went on strike against the major video game developers covered under the Interactive Media Agreement at Midnight on July 26. As was the case in 2023 with the simultaneous Writers Guild and SAG-AFTRA strikes, negotiators were unable to resolve disagreements connected to the use of so-called artificial intelligence.
In a wide-ranging press conference held the day the strike went into effect, Elmaleh and Interactive Agreement lead negotiator Ray Rodriguez explained the guild’s view of why the strike was necessary. Among other things, industry counteroffers were filled with loopholes allowing the replication of actors’ performances without permission, they said. Read more here.
In a statement released after the strike was declared, the developers said through a spokesperson that they were “disappointed the union has chosen to walk away when we are so close to a deal and we remain prepared to resume negotiations.”
The Interactive Agreement covers several of the largest video game developers, including Activision, EA, WB Games, Disney and Take Two as well as voiceover production companies Formosa Interactive and VoiceWorks Productions.
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