Video game workers in North America now have an industry-wide union
78 comments
·March 19, 2025Aurornis
lalaithion
How do you think unions start? Yes, an entire workplace can just up and decide some day to unionize but more often unions start as non-bargaining unions and then at some point get enough support to bargain with the companies.
throw9304040
I would be careful with assuming that.
In some countries/industries you have to be a member of an union by the law. Just by working in industry, union is forced upon you by law, and you have to pay their fees. The only way out, is to form your own union, with all paperwork. It really sucks for self employed folks.
Retric
The word is extremely overloaded. China has a lot of “unions” that exist to protect companies, avoid strikes, and stifle complaints not represent workers.
That doesn’t have any relevance for American unions, but people seems to think any issue they ever had with a union applies to every union.
drakonka
Could you please point me to which countries/industries those are? Just a link is fine. Googling isn't helping :(
bena
Just in the US
Screen Actors Guild
Writers Guild of America
Directors Guild of America
NFL Players Association
Now, I'll give you, SAG, WGA, and DGA don't control all film and television production and there are plenty of non-union jobs available. But most of the film and television you consume is union work.
Every player in the NFL is required to be a member of the NFLPA.
billy99k
It's essentially a mini socialist government in-between you and your employer, adding more layers of management.
ty6853
There's a great video of a longshoreman union rep bragging about crushing America so 'his guys' could get by, all the while with totaly lost irony he said this on TV while wearing a gold chain, Rolex, and living in an absolutely lavish mansion.
deadbabe
So basically useless.
diggan
Not quite, this is what themselves say about the structure:
> A direct-join union means that UVW-CWA does not represent a single workplace, but rather, anyone in the video game industry. This differs from other union models, which organize workers in a single company or even a specific department or office. This means UVW-CWA seeks to make change directly through worker power and public leverage against the companies of our industry without the limitations of traditional labor law and collective bargaining rights.
> Historically, workers in the U.S. and Canada organized their unions this way until their efforts resulted in the codified labor law we know today in the United States. Other countries also utilize direct-join unionism! [...] By being direct-join, UVW-CWA is able to grow more easily, have a wider base of membership, and is not limited to the constraints of the certification process.
So while it's true it doesn't have the typical benefits of another form of union, it doesn't seem useless at all. Biggest benefit is that exploited people get used to organizing together for a common cause, this will have a far wider impact than just in the video game industry.
deadbabe
Because nothing terrifies corporate executives more than a loosely organized group of scattered workers with no legal standing, no collective bargaining rights, and no strike protections. Truly, the next great labor revolution will be built on the unshakable foundation of good vibes and a mailing list. In practice, I don’t think things will be that easy.
crooked-v
Collective lobbying and PR has plenty of power, which is why companies do it so much.
dtagames
This is fantastic news and something we need very much!
When my studio was closed and 36 of us fired without notice 7 months ago, I poked around at union options and was shocked to find they were only inside individual studios, not even across whole companies, much less across the industry.
The games industry is 100 years behind film and music in standardizing contracts, roles, and rights (including IP rights for failed projects). This initiative gives us a chance to fix it!
dontlaugh
That does depend on laws in your particular country.
In the UK, you can be join the national union even if you are the only one in your workplace. Typically union recognition within a particular workplace comes later after sufficient numbers join.
Joel_Mckay
The churn rate in the gaming studios is usually abnormally high. Most key talent often breaks off into their own indie studios, and while budgets wont be spectacular AAA level... the content usually offers better quality fun, and the artists aren't burned out in 6 months.
The film and TV production situation is nothing to aspire toward... especially if you are a contractor. It never lead to more stable work for the crews, and became a feast or famine type seasonal working arrangement for many.
Unions are better than none, as at least your crew actually gets paid by some rat-fink production manager that often disappeared on wrap.
Best of luck, and some of the best talent I've met was shafted by a AAA studio at least once in their career (often for some really bizarre reasons.) =3
smeeger
companies with unions are a hundred years behind companies that run efficiently and do what they are supposed to instead of acting as a playing piece in the game of politics and union corruption. nobody ever talks about the fact that unions in america are corrupt… unions in germany aren't corrupt and germans can build bridges still. we can barely manage it without hiring foreign firms… stop worshiping unions its part of the problem
officeplant
Unions and the labor laws they helped create save American lives. Unfortunately American companies have been upset about this for decades and fight it at every level. Including lobbying laws into places preventing industry strikes. Thus leaving us far behind countries with properly working unions like Germany as you mentioned.
jisnsm
Yes, unions at video game studios are bound to save so many lives.
In other words your comment is hyperbolic and does not apply to the topic at hand.
matthewmacleod
America talks often about union corruption. In fact, it does this to the point of crowding out any productive discussion - because Americans are often quite resistant to looking at other countries and understanding what approaches they take to certain social issues.
toomuchtodo
United Videogame Workers-CWA (UVW-CWA)
https://cwa-union.org/news/releases/video-game-workers-launc...
khrbrt
This is the first I've heard of "direct-join union"s. DuckDuckGo only brings up variations of this article, or the pages to join individual, employer specific unions.
Where can I learn more about this type of union? Is there one for US IT workers?
diggan
Seems the full name is "Directly affiliated local union" (or "federal labor union") unless I'm mistaken: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Directly_affiliated_local_unio...
bsimpson
Sounds like an effort of the CWA, who is also behind the efforts to unionize Google, the Apple Stores, Mapbox, the NY Times, NPR, and the gaming companies mentioned at the bottom of the article:
smeeger
the ultimate goal being to achieve as much control as possible over all these companies that broadcast information or sentiments to millions and millions of people. unions are statecraft. look very closely who is behind these pushes for unions… theyre all cia associated or backed.
iugtmkbdfil834
I mean, historically speaking you are not wrong, but you lose some points over broadcasting information. That already has been and is being done now so, the argument goes, why not at least be well compensated in the process?
joemazerino
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imadethis
The union isn't officially launched yet, the talk is at 15:30 Pacific (six hours from now). Even if you can directly tie the quality of AAA games to if the workers who make them are unionized or not, I think it's a little premature to dismiss these efforts.
diggan
If anything, parent should make the opposite argument. AAA games are shit and been for some time, hopefully unions could make people focus on quality rather than just trying to keep their job after shipping the last game.
But jokes aside, quality of AAA games is probably because money runs the development of those today, unlikely to change in the short-term.
bryanlarsen
Sturgeon's law: 90% of everything is crap.
Most AAA games are, and have always been crap. But we only remember the rare gems from yesteryear that weren't crap. 5 years from now you'll look fondly on the games from 2025 because a couple will have stuck with you and you'll have long since dropped the rest.
ceejayoz
That doesn't mean there haven't been shifts in the industry.
Microtransactions, skyrocketing budgets, etc. Games in the 90s weren't selling you a skin for $10 or getting A-list actors to do the voices.
bryanlarsen
Games in the 90's had expansion packs and a few did have A list actors:
malcolmgreaves
Agreed. However, that has nothing to do with this news. Poor quality in games is what you get when you have investors that care more about a new Fortnite clone raking in money via micro transactions versus a quality game made by good workers.
infinghxsg
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periodjet
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charcircuit
Looking at their website, it has obvious socialism / communism design influences. I hope these activists fail to get a foothold in the industry. These are not the type of people I want to work with and it would be bad for the stock price.
frakt0x90
Most people joining unions are concerned about horrible working conditions and lack of basic respect and rights. The stock price should not be put above basic decency.
short_sells_poo
It is truly amazing how violently certain people want to fight against their own rights and organizations whose purpose is to fight for those rights.
ThrowawayR2
Workers in industries where there's an oversupply of labor driving down wages want unions. Workers in industries where there's an undersupply of labor don't because there's no benefit to them. What's amazing about that?
Vaslo
Source?
diggan
> it has obvious socialism / communism design influences
Which website are you looking at?
Unless I'm mistaken, the website is https://uvw-cwa.org/ and it isn't even red, have no hammers/sickles, and mostly talks about "stronger together", which fair enough, I guess could give some knee-jerk reaction about socialism if you don't believe in working together with others.
charcircuit
https://cwa-union.org/news/releases/video-game-workers-launc...
This is red. And look at the zine cover.
mullingitover
You're going to be furious when you look at the terminology and symbolism of the United States:
- it's a "Union," founded by "We the people" rather than being subjects subservient to an ordained ruler
- It has revolutionary ideals at its core
- There are fasces everywhere, an overt symbol of collective effort
- Right out of the gate, the US socialized one of the largest industries: transporting mail across the nation. Founders wrote it into the Constitution to ensure that it was untouchable
- To go along with that, the interstate highway system is a massive, communal project
- The most politically untouchable service, something politicians practically place on an altar, is a massive wealth redistribution scheme: Social Security
Beyond all this I didn't see a single thing on that site that has socialism design influences, which frankly makes it sort of un-American.
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tekla
Who cares? A union doesn't stop the fact that high budget games just kinda suck. Layoffs happen because these games bomb over and over and over and money runs out.
chii
a union doesn't guarantee money, that's true. However, a union can guarantee acceptable hours worked - for example, limit overtime (without pay) to X hrs per week.
Or, they ensures you're credited regardless if you left before the game shipped (because it is a form of portfolio for your career).
And lastly, a union means you cannot be exploited hard, like a lot of wanabe game programmers and artists are wont to be.
qingcharles
I quit gamedev because the hours were insane (often 80/wk) and the pay was ridiculously low. I would have loved a union to have tamped that down.
But.. the core problem was the schedule for development was bunk. If the schedule was right you wouldn't need crazy long hours.
tekla
And cool, good for them. They can get laid off after Korean game devs working for 1/5 the pay make games that sell much better
munk-a
You're focusing on a fact of the market which is not relevant to unionization discussions - what you're presenting is a risk for everyone in the industry. Instead unionization focuses on doing what we can to ensure we're treated with common decency and respect where we do work.
lenerdenator
What makes you think they just kinda suck?
tekla
What is the last game you can think of that has the cultural impact of the Halo 3 release?
zorked
Halo 3 mattered? News to me.
Etheryte
This is a common phenomenon, but I forget what it's called. Everyone thinks the golden age of whatever was when they grew up with it and it's never been quite the same ever since. Doesn't make it true though.
xboxnolifes
Fortnite has had a larger impact on the newest generation of gamers.
pmalynin
Most recently I think Baldurs Gate 3. People have also been enjoying Balatro a lot
qingcharles
Is Halo 3 good? I honestly didn't even know there was a Halo 3 and I'm an ex-gamedev, so I'm thinking the impact of it wasn't that huge?
SpicyLemonZest
Just from the 2020s, Hogwarts Legacy, Animal Crossing New Horizons, and Valorant. I think you're overweighting the impact of Halo 3 - note that its sales numbers put it nowhere close to the list of best-selling games you linked below.
> This is a direct-join union, meaning that workers can sign up on their own. This allows folks to bypass traditional unionization processes like elections and employer consent.
Good reminder that the word "union" is overloaded and doesn't always mean what you might assume.
People who join a union like this don't have union representation or union contracts with companies. They rely on individual members to take action in various forms within there own companies. In theory they could call for a strike and ask everyone who is a member to strike from their respective companies, but in practice it's more about raising awareness and making noise in hopes of driving change.
So while technically it's a union, it's not comparable to what most people think of as a union in the United States.