No Settlement in Strike Over Cartoon Voices

Federally mediated talks in an 11-day-old strike by actors who do cartoon voices failed to bring a settlement Thursday, and no new talks were scheduled, a union spokesman said.

Negotiators for the five struck studios and the 300 striking actors of the Screen Actors Guild met for two days in the downtown offices of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, said guild spokesman Mark Locher.

“There was no resolution to the strike, so it is continuing,” Locher said.

No new meetings are set, and the cartoon actors strike committee will meet to decide when and where picketing will resume, he said.

Strike Began June 15

The operations being struck are DIC studios, Filmation, Disney Studios, Hanna-Barbera and Marvel.

The nearly 300 actors who supply voices for about 40 television cartoon shows, essentially the three networks’ Saturday morning lineup, went on strike June 15. It was the first strike by that segment of the guild.

Cartoon voice actors are paid $361 a day for supplying voices for three characters per show. The guild wants actors to receive a full day’s pay for each main character’s voice and a four-hour workday because of the strain on their vocal cords.

The producers offered a 5% increase in the basic fee, but no extra money for extra characters.