Hundreds of video game workers join new unions as Trump attacks labor rights

Within the UVW-CWA goals listed in that Zine, drafting video game workers’ invoices to standardize working conditions including inequality, crunch and contractor healthcare gives organizers a shared vision. “Our struggle is not carried out in isolation. We need all the help we can get in the face of the most anti-worker regime of our life,” it reads.

Previous video game associations have been formed within a single development team under specific departments such as quality assurance. The United Videogame Workers-CWA is open to gaming industry workers in the US and Canada, regardless of where they work or whether they are currently employed.

CWA organizers told Wired that the direct combined union was “not created on its own, but rather built from the global industry-wide organisation that has been taking place since the 2020s unionization efforts in the gaming industry.” “The current administration’s demolition of labor laws encourages organizers and unions to think about building workers’ power in a variety of ways,” Kinema tells Wired.

The union’s efforts continue in the gaming industry. On March 21st, a large majority of Activision’s user research workers voted for representatives and were recognized by parent company Microsoft. April 1st, Zenimax Workers United members (a union consisting of over 300 quality assurance workers in January 2023) I’ll allow a strike.

“Our quality assurance team is an integral part of our business and is key to our ability to deliver the games our players love,” Microsoft spokesman Will Beckett told Wired. Microsoft says it has offered a package proposal that includes an increase in immediate compensation, among other benefits.

With over 400 members, UVW is already a larger group than some of the previous units formed within a particular team.

“In the context of direct bonding, everything is tied together, is there enough workers in the union? They are well committed to each other and can force employers to negotiate a struggle to improve wages, hours and working conditions,” says Sachs.

“It’s not a matter of law, it’s a matter of power.”