SAG-AFTRA has decided to strike against League of Legends, accusing Formosa Inc. of breaking labor laws.
Riot Games says this has nothing to do with their games, but the union filed a complaint against Formosa for trying to cancel a project during the strike. Instead of stopping the game, Formosa allegedly moved it to another company and looked for non-union actors to work on it.
SAG-AFTRA called a strike today against popular online game League of Legends, after a company that produces the game tried to subvert the video game strike. (1/2)
— SAG-AFTRA (@sagaftra)
In a statement, SAG-AFTRA said, “The unilateral and surreptitious transfer of union work to a ‘non-union’ shell company is an impermissible and appalling attempt to evade a strike action and destroy performers’ rights under labor law.” Because of Formosa’s actions, the union’s leaders have decided to strike against League of Legends, one of Riot’s most famous games. All union members must stop working on the game immediately.
Voice actors and motion-capture performers in the guild are striking because of concerns about AI. They are negotiating with ten big gaming companies, including Formosa, Activision, Disney, EA, Insomniac, Take 2, and WB Games.
Sarah Elmaleh from the union said, “League of Legends is a game of champions. Instead of championing the union performers who bring their immense talent and experience to beloved characters, decision-makers at Formosa have chosen to try to evade and abandon them. Such double-dealing is very disappointing from a longtime committed union signatory.”
We think it’s sad when companies don’t support their workers.
Interestingly, League of Legends was not part of the strike initially, allowing union performers to keep working on it.
Riot Games told GameSpot, “League of Legends has nothing to do with the complaint mentioned in SAG-AFTRA’s press release. We want to be clear: Since becoming a union project five years ago, League of Legends has only asked Formosa to engage with Union performers in the US and has never once suggested doing otherwise. In addition, we’ve never asked Formosa to cancel a game that we’ve registered. All of the allegations in SAG-AFTRA’s press release relating to canceling a game or hiring non-union talent relate to a non-Riot game, and have nothing to do with League or any of our games.”
Neither the collective bargaining group nor Formosa have made any official statements about this new strike. However, SAG-AFTRA tweeted, “We’re not LOLing about LoL.”
