Voice Actor Union Pickets Ratchet & Clank Dev, as Strike Continues

@bekyuubi:

Damn you are stupid. No wonder you're so worried about your IQ.

$100 an hour, working the average 40 hour work week, equals $208,000 a year. Quarter that to a mere 10 hours a week and you get $52,000.

Please stay away from sharp objects.

@fallingstickman: @franklucito:

I'm not discounting anybody's right to ask for more money. However, using a union to strike for more money after you rejected an offer for a 9-23% raise gets no sympathy from me.

And up to 4 secondary payments for games that sell 2 million or more? You'll see every inconsequential voice actor who has a line in a COD game flood the union's membership rolls (most likely the ultimate purpose for the strike), even though no one buys COD for the single player campaign!

Ultimately, this will hurt the gamer. Corporations pass these additional costs onto the consumer, and usually disproportionately to their costs. Voice actors will make much more than the $52,000 - $208,000 they already are, while the corporations will raise the prices for their games with a little profit added in for good measure (why not, they'll just blame it on the voice actors). The consumer loses.

@fallingstickman@Lacerz: No. That's not what he's saying. He's saying that Voice Actors are already making substantially more money than two people combined while doing less effort. He's saying they are paid enough as it is for the amount of work they actually put in. In a capitalistic society, people are allowed to go into any profession they want to fulfill their monetary needs. They aren't forced into any particular profession. It's their choice.

On you're second point, any person who is not greedy and actually reasonable, would absolutely question the Union by asking, "Wait, I didn't do anything more than I'm usually asked to do in my job and I'm okay with what I'm getting paid and I personally don't feel like I'm being treated unfairly. So why do I deserve to be paid more?" If you want to be greedy, sure. Get in bed with a Union who more cases than not, are only looking out for their leaders pocketbooks, hence Union dues. If Unions were truly humanitarian, they wouldn't require Union dues. That's the corruption of Unions at the heart.

Do the lion's share of the people want to make more money than they are making? Sure. But you gotta put in the work that's required to justify that increase in income. It's why many Voice Actors take on more roles in the industry by becoming ADR Directors, hence getting paid more for doing more work.

@fallingstickman: Work conditions, sure complain about them especially if it affects safety. Wage? No. I've never asked for a raise in the 20 years I've been working. You know why? Because for one, that would be greedy. And two, if the job hasn't changed since I accepted it when first hired and agreed to the pay rate, why should I actively seek out more pay for doing a job that hasn't changed? If I want more money, I either seek out more responsibility (which would warrant a pay raise), apply for a different position or find a different profession all together that pays what I'm looking to get paid. That's called not having an entitlement attitude. I as a person wouldn't grow if I didn't strive to go after new job experiences. If you want more pay, do more work that warrants the increase. Simple as that. Tit for tat, so to speak. Don't like how much you're getting paid? Guess what, there's plenty of jobs out there other people don't want to do that pay really well.

Teachers are stuck in that gray area. We need teachers, sure. Should they be paid well? I whole heartedly believe that their pay should definitely be based on their performance and attitude towards actually teaching. If you're a terrible teacher and have done little to actually educate, why should you get paid more for that? On the other hand, if you consistently output great results with the students, then absolutely, you should get paid more. If a teacher can not only overcome the obstacles of getting through to kids but also have them actually learn something, they deserve a raise.

But don't you dare compare Voice Acting to Teaching. They are completely different jobs. That's like comparing a surgeon to a janitor. They are apples to oranges when comparing the skill set required for each job.

@fallingstickman: people with any kind of professional ambition strive to increase their income by taking on more work or responsibility. Not by asking for a raise for doing the same thing they've been doing. That's what ambition is: achieve personal goals through hard work. It doesn't come from doing nothing more than what is expected.