After the SAG-AFTRA union called a strike against League of Legends, Riot Games has issued a statement that aims to dissociate the developer from the allegations being cited as the reason behind said strike.
The call to members to initiate strike action by the union was issued yesterday, with SAG-AFTRA outlining why it’s opted to take this step in a press release on its website, which cites alleged “unfair labour practices” by Formosa Interactive, a production company specialising in sound that’s worked on League of Legends.
In its post, SAG-AFTRA alleges that it has filed an unfair labor practice charge against Formosa – which also cites games like God of War Ragnarok, Destiny 2’s The Final Shape expansion, and Apex Legends among its past projects – with the US National Labor Relations Board and alleges that this comes “after Formosa tried to ‘cancel’ one of its struck video games shortly after the start of SAG-AFTRA’s video game strike”.
“When they were told that was not possible,” the union’s post claims, “they secretly transferred the game to a shell company and sent out casting notices for ‘NON-UNION’ talent only. SAG-AFTRA charges that these serious actions are egregious violations of core tenets of labor law – that employers cannot interfere with performers’ rights to form or join a union and they cannot discriminate against union performers. 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.”
“It’s bad enough that Formosa and other companies are refusing to agree to the fair A.I. terms that have been agreed to by the film, television, streaming, and music industries, as well as more than 90 other game developers,” added SAG-AFTRA national executive director and chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, “To commit illegal unfair labor practices is beyond the pale and won’t be tolerated by SAG-AFTRA members. Formosa will be held accountable, starting with an immediate strike of League of Legends.”
In response to this, Riot posted a statement to Twitter. “League of Legends has nothing to do with the complaint mentioned in SAG-AFTRA’s press release,” it wrote, “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.”
Formosa has also posted its own statement, writing: “We fully reject SAG-AFTRA’s allegations and have not acted in any manner to undermine employee or union rights, nor our relationship with the union. We believe the strike of League of Legends, a game unrelated to the union’s claims, is not appropriate. We stand with developers, publishers, platform holders, and talent to support global game development in a way that is safe and ethical for all.”
SAG-AFTRA members originally went on strike earlier this year over the issue of AI potentially being used to provide video game voice acting.