Union is strength.

December 6, 2022 7:21 AM

The rise of the video game union: [Polygon] is an all-in-one explainer on why game workers are unionizing and the specific steps that future organizers may take. We encourage you to share the link, and we’ve also prepared a zine version that you can print and distribute in your community. In legal speak, the zine is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States license (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 US), which permits distribution of the zine provided that it is not altered or modified, or used commercially. Learn how to print it in your town.

• Activision Blizzard Is Acting Like a Company That’s Scared of a Union [Waypoint] [Vice]

“The quality assurance team at Raven Software, one of the studios behind Call of Duty Warzone, voted to unionize. The vote wasn’t even close, with 19 votes in favor, three votes against. It was a landslide. It’s easy to take this moment for granted or inevitable, given the endless ugly headlines surrounding Activision Blizzard’s conduct in the last year. It’s a company under heavy criticism, entirely of its own doing, and because of how it did (and didn’t) treat its workers. One consequence of those actions is the first union at a major video game publisher in the U.S. Forming a union is one step, negotiating a contract is another, messier one. But it’s worth taking stock of what’s happened, why there’s so much anti-union sentiment in a country dominated by corporate power, and what Activision Blizzard’s response to the union tells us.”

• 300 QA Devs Unionize At Microsoft-Owned ZeniMax Studios [Kotaku]

“Roughly 300 quality assurance staff at ZeniMax, which includes developers across Bethesda and other studios on games like Starfield and Elder Scrolls Online, announced today that they will unionize with the Communications Workers of America. And unlike union drives at Activision Blizzard, Microsoft, which purchased ZeniMax in the 2021, said it won’t get in their way either. “We applaud Microsoft for remaining neutral through this process and letting workers decide for themselves whether they want a union,” CWA President Christopher Shelton said in a press release. “The company is fulfilling the commitments they laid out in their labor principals earlier this year, while sending a resounding message to the video game industry: the right to freely and fairly make a choice about union representation should be in the hands of the workers, not management.””

posted by Fizz (5 comments total)

Fucking yay.
posted by restless_nomad at 7:40 AM on December 6, 2022 [2 favorites]

I am starting to get a glimmer - just a little one, but it's there - of hope that the 0.0001% are on the brink of believing enough of their own bullshit to render themselves incapable of responding effectively to reality.

Elon Musk can't make an electric car. Gautam Adani can't dig up planet-wrecking amounts of coal. Jeff Bezos can't build a low earth orbit space penis. All of these deluded fools rely on other people for the gratification of their bizarre whims, and it's about time for that fact to have consequences.
posted by flabdablet at 8:06 AM on December 6, 2022 [9 favorites]

The union activity in the gaming industry is looooong overdue. So glad its popping up more and more.
posted by Fizz at 8:57 AM on December 6, 2022 [2 favorites]

I'll bet that as the first games developed entirely with union devs turns out to be much better games (certainly better at launch).
posted by VTX at 10:10 AM on December 6, 2022

This is SOOO GOOD. CLICK THE LINK!! Most suggestions in this zine apply to any workplace, so no matter where you work, this is valuable to check out! Other great resources: EWOC, Labor Notes Secrets of a Successful Organizer trainings.
posted by latkes at 12:11 PM on December 6, 2022 [5 favorites]