The Problem with SAG-AFTRA Part Two

The continuing issues with the VA Strike is causing people to peel back the page on the union.

Previously I was going to write this as another continuation in what seems to be a long struggle. It seemed like for the past week there has been a continous stream of information concerning the VA Strike or Collective Work Refusal when it comes to Genshin Impact. I previously covered the Writers Strike briefly and wrote about. Though I don’t think I ported it over from WordPress. But I digress. Let’s get into the issues of SAG-AFTRA.

The Entry Fee is Expensive

The main problem that I find with SAG-AFTRA is that the membership is the first entry fee. The main intiation fee to join the union is about $3000. It can be $4000 depending on where you live or more. Why is this a problem? I mean it’s a one time fee, and it gives you so many things like discounts and free health care, right?

The problem is that you have to think logically. That amount is about as much as a house payment. You are paying for a one month house payment, especially if that house is worth half a million dollars. Then you have to pay around $200 per year. And give a percentage of what you make to the union. Especially if you make over a million. That’s kind of fucked up.

If the union was truly being pro-worker then it wouldn’t be such an expensive fee that not everyone can pay. And those protections only goes to a few people.

The Misinformation and the lies

There has been a lot of misinformation going on as to why the strike even started. The bigger irony is that the whole point of this was supposed to be against AI protections. Things came to a head when a voice actor who was holding the line so to speak, John Patneaude, was replaced by Jacob Takanashi, a non-union voice actor who is based in Tokyo replaced him as the voice of Kinisch. What happened next showed not only the true colors of his fellow voice actors but the true colors of the strike itself. It was less about AI, and more about needing Mihoyo/Hoyoverse to be a union shop.

Why?

Because technically, union workers aren’t supposed to work at non-Union studios. If they do then they can get in trouble. Now people who are what’s called Ficore or Financial Core can get passed that. However, according to SAG-AFTRA’s own wordage, Ficore are scabs. And scabs are those who cross the picket lines and work when there is a strike. However, this isn’t a strike, but a collective work refusal.

The union VAs really showed their ugliness when they attacked Jacob and called him a scab which caused people to look into what SAG-AFTRA was about. When the reality is the true scabs are those who have been granted a special privelege to be working while everyone else doesn’t. That’s kind of fucked up.

The Attitude of Union VAs versus Non-Union VA’s, other Union VA’s and The Fans Is Probelmatic

I’m not going to repost a lot of the vitriol that’s been going on bluesky. And before anyone says anything, I use bluesky, usually to vent about what’s going on in my life, promote the blog when I’m not writing controversial bits, and promoting my stream.

Now on bluesky there have been people like Paimon’s VA, LittleKuriboh and others who have completely said that fan support isn’t neccessary for the strike. Whereas Venti’s VA, and even Allegra Clark have stated that fan support is necessary. Even SAG-AFTRA’s own website states that fan support is neccessary. But it’s comments from Paimon’s VA and others which has put a sour taste in most fans mouth and caused them to turn. In many cases, the fans don’t trust the VA’s and for good reason.

Between them dogpiling on Jacob Takanashi and claiming that he’s a scab when some of them are working as technical scabs themselves because they’re Ficore. To unceremoniously bashing the fans and streamers. To attacking other VAs that just want to go back to work.

Like? Do you not see what’s going on with our economy right now? With all the tariffs going on? I have for the first month since I quit my job at Target, watched my 401k that I got for working there for 12 years go up and go down. I paniced during that month badly. And even when I got that money I paniced at the thought of not getting a job and eventually being homeless because I’m a freelancer that’s living in a hotel.

So I can 100% emphasize with those VAs. It’s a scary ass feeling. For all you know they probably can’t do Uber Eats or Lyft or whatever. Some of them might not have a car. I don’t. I have a driver’s license, however do to my anxiety rearing it’s ugly head after every mistake or perceived mistake I have, I freak out. I break down into tears and I doomspiral. So it’s best that I don’t drive. Not to mention who knows what state they live in and how much gas costs.

You shouldn’t need to have UberEats or any gig thing that requires you to drive more than you need to. Your job and or union should be the one providing you with benefits and with pay. Otherwise, why are you in the Union? And don’t say “well so they get health care.” That only goes to a whopping 14% of people.

SAG-AFTRA is trying to create a monopoly

A monopoly is a market in which one person or company is the only supplier of a particular good or service.

In this case SAG-AFTRA is trying to be the only union for the entertainment industry when it comes to movies, music, tv shows and eventually video games. This is a big problem because things do not run smoothly when only one entity has control. This is where anti-trust laws come into play.

In the United States, antitrust law is a collection of mostly federal laws that govern the conduct and organization of businesses in order to promote economic competition and prevent unjustified monopolies. The three main U.S. antitrust statutes are the Sherman Act of 1890, the Clayton Act of 1914, and the Federal Trade Commission Act of 1914. Section 1 of the Sherman Act prohibits price fixing and the operation of cartels, and prohibits other collusive practices that unreasonably restrain trade. Section 2 of the Sherman Act prohibits monopolization. Section 7 of the Clayton Act restricts the mergers and acquisitions of organizations that may substantially lessen competition or tend to create a monopoly.^[2] The Robinson–Patman Act, an amendment to the Clayton Act, prohibits price discrimination.^[3]

Yes I copied and pasted from Wikipedia. The point is that SAG-AFTRA is trying to be the main union for the entertainment industry. For whatever reason a lot of these entities and companies think that it’s good to just merge with each other. We saw this with the airplane industry. We saw this in the video game industry starting with Square gobbling up Tri-Ace and then merging with Enix, Bandai merged with Namco, and Koei merged with Tecmo. Hell we see this in engineering with Bosch. Bosch always eats up smaller companies in Europe when it comes to engineering, and even for their other departments. However, because of this they always run into issues with anti-trust.

And honestly, running a monopoly is really anti-worker. Having more companies in a singular industry is good because that creates competition. If one corporation eats up another one, not everyone gets to keep their jobs. Only a few get the privelege of working.

The same can work in SAG-AFTRA makes every video game company be a union shop. Not everyone can join that union or even afford it. Again it’s like affording your first month’s payment if you bought your house at $450k. That’s almost a half a million dollars. And even if you do that, you won’t be one of the 14% to obtain healthcare.

For those who aren’t union, they won’t be able to find a job in their field and would get refused even if they had a Taft Hartley which the union is known not to provide those and will just hire a union voice actor.

And that’s fucked up.

What do you think? Do you think that SAG-AFTRA is going too far? Why or why not? Let us know in the comments below. Want to keep up with the latest, then don’t forget to subscribe. Like what I write? Then give me a tip! It’s what keeps me going. Want to see something specific, don’t hesitate to shoot me a message.