The SAG-AFTRA Strike has suspended

10 months ago, SAG-AFTRA ended their Writer’s Strike by signing with a deal with an AI company which started a fire storm pissing off numerous voice actors, and started another strike for voice actors to protest the inclusion of AI in video games. Something that again, SAG-AFTRA signed on without the vote of their members. And the strike also wasn’t voted on by it’s members. Now I’ve been covering it for the past month, as many people were striking games like Hoyoverse games which weren’t covered by the SAG-AFTRA strike. Instead it was a work refusal. However, the strike has been suspended.

Though there is trouble afoot, and it seems like the SAG-AFTRA leadership and some voice actors aren’t as clean as they appear. Mujin made a video covering it, that you should watch here.

This whole thing has been going on because of a group of VAs that don’t know how to be professional in regards to their responses when a fellow VA got replaced for not doing his job during the strike. Though as Joe Zieja had pointed out, was a workforce refusal as Hoyoverse was not a struck property nor an union shop. Though that didn’t stop SAG-AFTRA and some of the more vocal voice actors to try and strong arm Hoyoverse into signing.

Now Jacob Takanashi is a voice actor who is based in Japan, had no knowledge of what was going on and was being met with a lot of hatred on the side of the vocal voice actors and their supporters. With many such as LittleKuriboh, who ironically is known for his Yu-Gi-Oh! the Abridged series which was notable for making fun of the English localization and the voice acting; were in disbelief that he didn’t know. I don’t know about you but if I was in another country I wouldn’t pay attention to what is going on in the states. I mean hell there was a time when I had BBC America as a middle schooler and all I would watch was BBC News. I mean hell I didn’t even know this was going on until I saw a video about Jacob Takanashi getting absolutely shit canned by his fellow voice actors.

Now just last month SAG-AFTRA held some kind of a Q&A session on Instagram Live where some of the VA’s were concerned that voice acting was going overseas. Though the leadership of SAG-AFTRA when it came to negotiations disregard those feelings. Now it’s been said that any VA that takes a roll from another VA doing a collective work refusal is called a scab according to the die SAG-AFTRA supporters, (never minding that anyone with a ficore status is an actual scab according to SAG-AFTRA’s own website. But at any rate if this was the case that voice acting work was going to overseas, that puts American VA’s in a pickle, likely because of the SAG-AFTRA strike. Which again started because the union signed a deal with an ai company which pissed off a lot of voice actors. Had SAG-AFTRA not done that, I don’t think that there would have been a strike or a collective work refusal.

I mean it’s not like the vocal voice actors aren’t ruining their own reputation and the reputation of American voice actors that aren’t working with SAG-AFTRA. Honestly the lack of professionalism that has been going on for the past few months honestly does not bode well for many who are looking to work as a voice actor. At least in the states, especially with how shitty the economy and job market is right now.

It really does not make SAG-AFTRA endearing to me. It does not make me like them. Honestly the way they disregard their own voice actors concerns, reminds me of how I worked at Target, and many of my concerns were disregarded. They want to make it seem like their not as heartless as a corporation or a monopoly, but their behavior does not give me the warm fuzzies. On top of their entrance fee being $3000-4000 USD. (Yes I will not stop harping on that because that’s about as much as a first month payment on a house. Like for fucks sake, I’d rather make a payment on a house than join SAG-AFTRA. Hell even if I were to rent that’s about as much as three to four months of rent.)

And not to mention that it was completely asinine not just for the vocal voice actors but for SAG-AFTRA to at the time want to continue the strike and have it go longer. There was one vocal voice actor by the name of Sera Bryer that said for Allegra Clark and even Jennifer Hale to just suck it up while Sera and others had to do Uber. I’m going to be really blunt. There is a major fucking problem with trying to force people to do Doordash, or Uber or UberEats, or Lyft, or any type of gigwork just to make ends meet. I’ve had a friend whose a Team Lead at Target, he should be making a bit more than team members and be able to afford to rent an apartment or house. However, he has to make ends meet by running Doordash, which he shouldn’t be if Target just paid him fair wages. The same can be said for voice actors.

They shouldn’t HAVE to. No one should have to. In the three months that I’ve been in Colorado I’ve had Lyft drivers (I don’t have a car, I don’t drive. I take rideshares to get around from place to place. Just in case you were wondering.) that have said that they got laid off from their job and were using Lyft as a way to make ends meet, simply because the job market is bad. I myself have resorted to freelancing, writing this blog, starting to do live streaming so that I can make ends meet because no one is really hiring. Like it’s completely asinine and unrealistic to expect that people should be out of work for a long time when they have rent to pay, bills to pay, hell even medical expenses.

So why would they get pissed off at Jacob Takanashi for taking a job? Which by the way Corina Boettiger had been working since the start of the work refusal and is ficore. She called Jacob a scab, even though she’s a scab herself. Really pot calling the kettle black. Kayli Mills said that Corina needed the job whereas Jacob didn’t because he bought a house recently. Except, when you buy a house, you have to pay these things called mortgage payments. If you don’t make these payments, you lose a house. I honestly don’t think that these people live in the realm of reality. Though they’ve shown themselves to be narcissists, and with my own personal experience of dealing with narcissists: They never live in the realm of reality. Ever.

Which brings me back to Mujin’s video that goes over things that were said in discord group by some notable voice actors talking shit about their fellow voice actors. Which honestly boils my blood so, so, so much. There is a lack of accountability and a lack of professionalism in the voice acting portion of SAG-AFTRA. Starting with a lot of them trying to report and having Mujin’s video taken down because he *checks notes* because he revealed their names. At first I thought it was because of their blue sky accounts, but after seeing Mujin’s video, they use their actual names in their discord username.

I’m pretty sure that many of these VA’s are around my age of 34. Some may be older, some may be younger. But I’m pretty sure most of them grew up in the early 2000’s era of To Catch A Predator. You’re not supposed to put your birth name on the internet as your username ever. I don’t care if it’s part of your job. Make up an alias. Like, I’ve been doing that since I was 13, and I’m still doing it well into my 30’s. I do not care. No one gets my real name on social media. No one gets my real name in a discord server, that’s how much I care about my privacy. The only name you will get is my pseudonym, even if and when I break out as an author. It’s Internet Safety 101. It’s not Mujin’s fault that you are so stupid to put your real name as your discord name.

Not only did you fail any internet safety course but have the absolute gaul to try and besmirch both Jen Taylor and Troy Baker. They are fucking legends and some of the few who have put voice acting on the fucking map. They have paved the way for voice acting over the years. Seriously? You’re going to call her a scab when you have Corina attacking her fellow VAs for working when she herself has been doing voice lines for Paimon in Genshin Impact. She only stepped down because it was likely that Hoyoverse was done with her shit.

Not to mention that you have a gall to Jen selfish. Really? She’s the selfish one for wanting to get back to work, and trying to make an honest living not just for herself but for everyone else who needs paycheck to survive in this shitty fucking economy. Do you hear yourself, Zeke Alton? You can try to bully Mujin, but you’re not going to bully me since you’re the idiot that decided to make your discord name your actual name. Idiot. Though the irony of this whole thing is that you used to be a board member of the AI company that signed the agreement with SAG-AFTRA. How did you become apart of the negotiating team? That is kind of oh I don’t know. Suspicious. Really suspicious. You want to claim that you are for the voice actors but the reality is, you’re not. Now I’m going to show the images from Mujin’s video, ya’ll can watch Mujin’s video and form your own opinion. But I will break down my opinion of everyone involved which isn’t good.

Even Kyle McCarly who has been a major advocate for SAG AFTRA, had some disparging comments thinking that the voice actors in SAG-AFTRA had the cards and that the companies would come groveling, however, the problem is that many of your people are losing their jobs, losing their homes, and losing healthcare. Either they haven’t already or they are on that teetering slope. Which is a fun place to be. I know from personal experience. You ever spend a money watching your 401k go up and then down, and do this repeatedly for a month? I have. It’s not a fun feeling. It’s scary. I can’t tell you how many times I have freaked the fuck out to my boyfriend because I’m scared of going homeless. There are people within SAG-AFTRA that are feeling that fear. I hope to God you and your cronies never have to experience that fear cause it’s not fun.

Now the other thing that is kind of funny in a way is the talk about Ficore. Now Ficore is a status that allows someone to work non-union jobs but they don’t get most of the benefits of being a SAG-AFTRA union member but you can get health care. However, being ficore means that you are a scab in the eyes of the union and for some union based developers they are asking for a list of people not to hire. Which I would like to say is kind of not legal. But this is SAG-AFTRA, they don’t care. And are all about scaring people. Honestly at this rate I think all of the voice actors should leave and start their own union and leave Zeke by himself.

Because of the whole if you don’t do this then you’re blacklisted bit. Whether it’s slim or not it’s still rather scummy as a whole. And at this point the damage by the vocal voice actors has already been done. A lot of people already don’t trust them. Or the people that support them for their scummy behavior. Now that’s not all.

Remember a few weeks or a month ago when I wrote that Erika Harlacher-Stone wrote that she wanted to go back to voice acting. For those who don’t know she’s the voice of Venti in Genshin Impact. A lot of the Pro-Strike people chose to bad mouth her in the same server claiming that she had done a lot of damage to the strike. The reality is that Kayli Mills, Corina Boettiger, and several other voice actors and their supporters running their mouths and attacking Jacob Takanashi and others. That is what ruined your reputation. But I wouldn’t expect a room full of narcissists to get that. I would know personally.

Now the one thing that a lot of them get wrong is that Hoyoverse is not in the business of using AI without the consent of the voice actor. Under China’s law there was a court case last year and they determined that AI cannot take a voice actor’s voice without their consent. It was later codified into Chinese law. And while Mihoyo/Hoyverse has companies all over the world, they still, for the most part have to follow Chinese law. So they’re not going to replace anyone with AI. That’s a stupid fucking take to try and scare people. What they will do is fire you and replace you with a human voice actor from a different country like what happened to Kinisch’s original voice actor. And everyone and their mother that was aligned with SAG-AFTRA or supporting them decided to shitcan him. Why? Because they saw him as a threat. Even though their threat is AI. And ironically again SAG-AFTRA signed with an AI company, and the former board member of said AI company is helping negotiate. But sure let’s go with the theory that AI is going to take everyone’s jobs and not see the irony of the statement. Or as George W. Bush would say, “ironical.”

The other irony is that many of these voice actors wanted the strike to continue. For whatever reason and then try to bad mouth everyone that wanted to get back to work. I would say the selfish ones are going to be these bad actors. Again as I’ve said in other blogs covering this clusterfuck of a strike, and in this post, the economy is not doing so great right now, neither is the job market. You can’t keep people from working because you want to. Not to mention these seem voice actors are not only going after Erika, but also Allegra Clark, Jennifer Hale, Paperbag Boy and Mujin. The first three because they want this bullshit to end, and the last two for covering the bullshit.

All it is just fear mongering and bully tactics. It’s something that narcissists tend to do. And the only thing they know how to. For now the strike is over. Though the damage is done. Honestly I think that Allegra Clark and Jennifer Hale should leave SAG-AFTRA and start their own union for Voice Actors, and just leave out Zeke, and his cronies. And the sad thing is that months ago, Joe Zieja put out a video trying to be civil and informing people. The damage is done. The faith that many people have in these voice actors has been destroyed because they want to be the main character.

What’s done is done. But for now the strike is over and I’m free from writing about it. I need a drink.

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