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On the other side of the Atlantic, John Barclay, assistant general secretary of the UK actor’s union Equity, released a statement of solidarity with its stateside counterparts.
“We stand shoulder to shoulder with SAG-AFTRA as partners in a global fight to secure fair pay and protect our members’ rights, which could not be more urgent as we move forward with artificial intelligence innovation.”
Regulations around strikes are different in the UK, Equity members aren’t striking and neither will UK members of SAG-AFTRA be compelled to.
Actor David Menkin has provided the voice for Luke Skywalker in Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, as well as voice work in Final Fantasy XVI and Horizon Zero Dawn, amongst a host of other games.
He explains: “Here in the UK, we don’t have a mutually agreed contract between the union Equity and the producers that make these games. So therefore, even if you’re SAG-AFTRA but you were hired on a UK based contract, you can’t stop, you cannot strike, you cannot leave the production, you have to fulfil everything in your contract.”
He tells me he’ s concerned that US companies may try and work around the issue of striking American actors by coming to the UK and hiring British talent to perform in games instead.
“All we can do is make sure that if the work is dumped in the UK, that we are making sure that UK-based actors are fully informed.”
In the US the strike continues and while she waits for both sides to return to the negotiating table, Jennifer Hale hopes long time creative concerns will overcome short-term commercial gain.
“I hope they see that we are all in this together. I don’t understand why they’re willing to kill us all off to increase things a few percentage points, it makes no sense to me.”
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