As a response to larger trends in media industries, the merger of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) in March 2012 positions the newly converged union as a more unified front at the bargaining table. This paper analyzes the public discourse of SAG and AFTRA from 1980 through the 2012 merger, and argues that by focusing on “convergence” the merger rhetoric effectively masks one of the core issues that propelled it—the diminishing importance of film and the growing importance of television and other media.