SAG-AFTRA is putting its video game strike in the rearview mirror.
The 11-month strike waged by the performers’ union was brought to a tidy end on Wednesday as members voted overwhelmingly to ratify a labor agreement with major interactive companies, which collectively are behind franchises like Call of Duty and Marvel’s Spider-Man.
More than 95 percent of voting members supported the deal reached in early June, while less than five percent voiced their opposition, SAG-AFTRA announced on Wednesday.
The union’s strike began in July of 2024 and stretched on until June 2025, when negotiators reached a tentative deal and SAG-AFTRA subsequently suspended the work stoppage. The agreement — whose predecessor originally expired in November 2022 — took an unusually long time, three years, to hammer out.
The union’s national executive director, Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, nodded to length of the union’s action in a statement. “All of us at SAG-AFTRA would like to extend our deepest appreciation to the video game performers and allies who endured a great deal of sacrifice throughout the 11-month strike,” he said. “Now that the agreement is ratified, video game performers will be able to enjoy meaningful gains and important A.I. protections, which we will continue to build on as uses of this technology settle and evolve.”
During the strike, performance capture and voice actors ceased working for household names like Activision Productions, Electronic Arts Productions and Insomniac Games. Disney Character Voices, Formosa Interactive, WB Games, Take 2 Productions, Blindlight and Llama Productions were also subject to the labor action.
The union framed the step as a necessary bulwark against their performers being exploited and undercut by AI. The sides had reached an agreement on 24 out of 25 proposals when SAG-AFTRA decided to walk away from the table in July 2024, a representative for the employers said at the time, with AI providing the breaking point.
In a statement on Wednesday, the same representative for the video game firms extolled the agreement’s changes to wages and language on A.I. and health and safety. “We look forward to building on our industry’s decades-long partnership with the union and continuing to create groundbreaking entertainment experiences for billions of players worldwide,” spokesperson Audrey Cooling said.
The deal offers lengthy terms aimed at requiring companies to gain consent from union performers before creating digital replicas of their image or voice and compensating those actors for the time expended to create them. During a strike, the agreement allows members to pause their consent.
Financially, the agreement provides a sweetener for ratification, with all wages immediately being raised 15.17 percent upon union members approving the deal. The contract then offers wage increases of three percent for each year of the contract.
The contract additionally institutes five-minute rest periods for performers in front of the camera after each hour of work and raises employers’ health and retirement contribution rates from 16.5 percent to 17.5 percent by October 2026.
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