If you read my article from last week, then you know that there was a vote by certain SAG-AFTRA members to authorize the union to go on an official strike. The union needed 75% of the members to vote in authorization for it to pass, and although 75% seems like a difficult number to reach, after the votes were counted it turned out that a staggering 96.52% of affected members voted to authorize a strike.

So does this mean that they'll be striking immediately and picketing EA and Activision (two of the worst offenders in my opinion) until their demands are met? Well not just yet. The fact that such an overwhelming number of voice talent voted in favor of a strike should serve as it's own message to the major video game companies that the union is willing to do whatever it takes to protect their members. This vote of affirmation represents the last chance SAG-AFTRA is giving the major players in the industry, no pun intended, to actually come to the table and attempt to negotiate.

In my previous article about the strike I mentioned the scummy things the video game industry fired back at the SAG-AFTRA; the fines, no stunt coordinators. But one I didn't mention, because, to be honest, I was certain the vote was going to pass and this piece of information would be more relevant in this article than the last (hey, I'm not a real journalist), is that they want to be able to use employees already working for them to be voice actors on future projects, therefore bypassing the whole issue of unions to begin with.

Again, you might recognize this as being a total dick move. Voice actors aren't just everyday schmoes that walk off the streets into a recording booth and start talking. Almost every single voice actor has some experience doing radio, stand-up comedy, screen acting, theater, singing, or any other profession that demands strong voice work and the ability to manipulate a large range of sounds. Do EA and Activision think they can just pull some random low level programmer to be the next Nolan North or Troy Baker? Apparently they do, so they're even dumber than I thought. It might not make a difference to the company executives who don't even play video games, but the real gamers are going to notice when they are getting a D- performance out of the characters.

Regardless of how you feel about unions - maybe you yourself are in one - they very much help industries move forward while trying to make sure none of their employees are treated unfairly. It's why big businesses are always portrayed, not entirely inaccurately, as hating unions. They want to keep as much money for the executives who, let's be honest, probably do the least amount of actual work than anyone who works beneath them.The other employees are treated so poorly in fact, that the some of the most vocal opponents to the SAG-AFTRA strike were the programmers and developers at those same studious. They argued that if the voice actors got bonuses for hitting certain sales markers than they should too. But that brings up three things: one, that that argument is like when your mom gives your sister a cookie but not you and then you cry about how unfair it is; two, the voice actors have a union which is doing the negotiating and striking for them but the programmers have no union; and three, I actually agree with them despite the insulting way I phrased number one.

Video game programmers are some of the most poorly treated employees in the entire tech industry. They are frequently subjected to unpaid overtime, six-day work weeks, and after moving to a new city to work on a project for three to five years they can expect to be laid off immediately after the project is finished. Most big companies will only keep on a handful of senior programmers and developers after a big project is finished because not very many programmers are required for the pre-development phase of a new project.

So if the programmers should be doing anything about the SAG-AFTRA strike, it's supporting them. In fact, they need to take a lesson from this and try to form their own union. To be fair, I have no idea how a work union gets formed and I imagine it's fairly difficult, but when the industry you work for barely recognizes your existence, let alone care about it, I think it's time for them to stand together and do something about it. The video game industry is due for some major changes and I think the voice actors strike may be the beginning of it.