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Unionization is a topic that has been gaining in prominence recently. At both this year's and last year's Game Developers Conference, there have been multiple sessions and roundtable discussions about unionization. The discussion has at times become quite heated, and there are strong opinions on both sides of the issue. There are also many developers who don't care one way or the other and feel that unionization discussions do not warrant the attention they are getting. I am happy to share my opinion on the matter and my reasons for holding it, but please understand that there are many opinions, each with arguments behind them. I am not speaking for all game developers, and no one could, as we are not speaking with a united voice on this issue. I think it is safe to say that developers generally don't disagree about the problems the industry faces. Nobody is in favor of low pay, lack of job security, frequent layoffs, or frequent crunch. Instead, the disagreement is mostly over whether unionization would solve these problems, or, at least, if it would solve more problems than it caused, or whether its solutions would be worth the costs. Personally, I do not feel that a union, at least, the groups currently attempting to organize a union, represent a good solution to the problems of job insecurity, pay inequality, and crunch. To me, the current unionization efforts sound a lot like the underpants gnomes, presenting themselves (i.e. unionization) as the solution to these problems without laying out any sort of strategy for actually solving anything beyond declaring the union to exist. If you take a look at the most prominent pro-union group's website (https://www.gameworkersunite.org/) you will find a well thought out and detailed list of grievances, but not much in the way of solutions or concrete, workable proposals for solutions. In addition to the current efforts' lack of solid plans, I see two other major obstacles to successful unionization. First, there are a lot of people who dream of working in the game industry. Their willingness to sacrifice for their dreams is part of the cause of the long hours, low pay, and lack of job security that occurs. People will take these jobs anyway, because it means working on games. With the supply of workers so much greater than the demand, the power of the workers to bring meaningful industry-wide change, even if united, isn't great. Also, game developers tend to be younger, in the earlier stages of life, without families or much in the way of community roots. These sorts of people are the hardest to convince of the benefits of unionization. I fear that even if unions did take hold, there would be a constant struggle to keep membership rates high enough to be meaningful. Second, there is a certain amount of greed and profiteering attributed to the organizers of the unionization efforts, as well. This effect is exacerbated by their lack of a concrete plan of action. At this year's GDC, several representatives from unions from other major industries attended some of the sessions. They were ostensibley there to offer advice to game developer union organizers and interested parties about how to best go about getting rolling, and they did this effectively, but they also served as a reminder about the costs and bureaucratic overhead inherent in an industry-wide union. The games industry has always attracted artistic talents, and the AFL-CIO guys were awfully square. Again, I do not speak for the entire industry. There are people whose opinions I respect who are rabidly pro-union, and their arguments have merit. I'm not sure where this movement will end up, or how long it will take to get there, though I would hazard a guess at the latter question of from five to ten years. It is certainly an interesting discussion to be a part of.
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Apr 5, 2019 20:38
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I'm curious how you would propose to tackle these issues without the strength of collective bargaining and union action? I mean, I'm biased; as a founding member of GWU UK, I've been very involved in our discussions about what and how we want to fix our industry and how the union can help members(specialist legal advice on tap is real handy!). I've seen members call out for help and advice and the union spring into action to help them work things out. We're a long way off fixing the whole industry, but we're already helping people who didn't have access to this kind of help before. Before I joined GWU, I had the same concerns about young people joining the industry and not caring so much about crunch, allowing themselves to perpetuate the cycle of exploitation. But we talk to students and new grads all the time, and let me tell you - they've heard all about crunch, and most of them are very enthusiastic about putting and end to all that bullshit.
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Apr 5, 2019 22:15
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floofyscorp posted:I'm curious how you would propose to tackle these issues without the strength of collective bargaining and union action? I don't have an industry-wide solution. Personally, I tackled these issues by going indie. Now, if I work my rear end off, at least I'm working entirely to my own benefit. I certainly agree that students and other newbies are enthusiastic about the prospect of an industry without crunch. Hell, I'm enthusiastic about that prospect. My concern is whether the current unionization efforts are able to accomplish that, or whether they will either die on the vine or, worse, take our money in the form of dues and still be ineffective. What I think GWU needs is a page something like https://www.sagaftra.org/production-center/contract/810/rate-sheet/document where we can begin the discussion of what a fair game industry actually looks like, and find a compromise between an ideal fair industry and one that can still make money for management and investors. I have yet to see any concrete policy or deal term proposals from the existing unionization efforts. It has all been statements of principle like 'less/no crunch' and 'fewer/no surprise layoffs' with little or no discussion of practical paths to those ends. I guess to answer your question more directly, I think that a union, guild, or some other form of developer collective could move the industry in a good direction, but that current efforts need to focus a little more on solutions and a little less on problems. I also think, however, that the industry is moving in the right direction on most of these issues already. We are way better than the days of ea_spouse, on the whole. I am not content with the current status, but I have not been convinced by the unionization efforts that I have seen that they are worth backing. Edit: Floof, can you give some examples of how GWU UK has acted to help people? Can any of them be extrapolated to a more general policy? Star Warrior X fucked around with this message at 22:49 on Apr 5, 2019 |
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Apr 5, 2019 22:46
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Star Warrior X posted:Edit: Floof, can you give some examples of how GWU UK has acted to help people? Can any of them be extrapolated to a more general policy? Unfortunately I'm not able to share any concrete examples for fear of people being identified - the industry here is surprisingly small and everyone knows everyone. But we've had members come into our Discord asking about situations at work that they were unhappy or worried about, and we've been able to connect them advice from other members or in more serious situations with the union's advisers and legal team, and it doesn't cost them anything but their dues.
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Apr 5, 2019 23:06
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Unions again? My opinion is that there is not enough modern information or proposals being presented in a digestible way. Game industry needs accurate data on the pros, cons, the cost and steps needed to implement unionization, how it might roll out for actual people with boots on the ground, and the potential pitfalls or scenarios that other unions have experienced, which could be avoided. From the article: "I don’t work in video games, but as a journalist who writes about them..." No thanks. Name me one job where you think people outside your industry should make decisions for you. What game dev does not need: people who are casual observers (ie gaming public and blog writers) making public decrees on behalf of others, while not being affected themselves by the possible outcomes. Yeah, awareness is good, but you also have the very real chance of making life worse for the people you're trying to help. Just as a reminder: starting your own studio and going indie is harder work than being an employee in every way: hours, stress and lack of work/life balance. The chance of failure is higher than being laid off, and instead of a severance you get to burn your entire personal savings. The risk and rewards are both astronomically higher. Employees at game companies should be treated better, I'm still not convinced about unions until I see actual info and proposals. I think all of the above is not a popular take because it's not easy to understand or get excited about. Chewbot fucked around with this message at 05:27 on Apr 6, 2019 |
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Apr 6, 2019 00:19
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FWIW the author is Jason Schreier and not just some random outsider. He's probably one of the only outsiders that could write such an article and have it mean something.
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Apr 6, 2019 02:02
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yeah dude has literally written a book about this
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Apr 6, 2019 02:11
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Unions are good.
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Apr 6, 2019 03:15
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You know what? gently caress it, I wasted two hours writing a reply and deleted it. I don't need any of this coming back to bite me in the rear end, and it always does. I'll give you the tl:dr. I'm for unions! But show me a loving plan. Don't just parrot "unions are good" because you heard someone else say it. Chewbot fucked around with this message at 05:33 on Apr 6, 2019 |
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Apr 6, 2019 05:12
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Join the union, make the plan. Sitting back and waiting for other people to come up with a plan to fix your problems is not going to get you anywhere tbh.
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Apr 6, 2019 10:31
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Unless there's some kind of massive overhaul of labour laws (lol) in any country where a company can fire you after *expecting* hours of overtime, unpaid, and a CEO can make 300x their workers' wage while not doing 300x the work then yeah, collective bargaining is the best bet for getting your fair share of what you make. This is true of any industry, not just game development.
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Apr 6, 2019 10:47
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goku i won't do what u tell me
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floofyscorp posted:Join the union, make the plan. Sitting back and waiting for other people to come up with a plan to fix your problems is not going to get you anywhere tbh. Cool yeah, I'll just go through an incredibly long process of hostility with my employer on the off chance that a union succeeds so that I can give them a large chunk of my paycheck while I'll then be required to "figure it out" later in a process no one can describe to me ahead of time. Sounds great.
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Apr 6, 2019 14:00
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floofyscorp posted:Join the union, make the plan. Sitting back and waiting for other people to come up with a plan to fix your problems is not going to get you anywhere tbh. I strongly agree with this. I think there is a real opportunity for a leader with an effective, coherent, logical plan of action to harness the current efforts and drive some meaningful change. I'm not that guy, but I hope they exist and step forward. I do not think that the current, unfocused effort is going to go the distance.
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Apr 6, 2019 14:16
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MJBuddy posted:Cool yeah, I'll just go through an incredibly long process of hostility with my employer on the off chance that a union succeeds so that I can give them a large chunk of my paycheck while I'll then be required to "figure it out" later in a process no one can describe to me ahead of time. None of these things are true with the current UK GWU.
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Apr 6, 2019 15:32
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KRILLIN IN THE NAME posted:Unless there's some kind of massive overhaul of labour laws (lol) in any country where a company can fire you after *expecting* hours of overtime, unpaid, and a CEO can make 300x their workers' wage while not doing 300x the work then yeah, collective bargaining is the best bet for getting your fair share of what you make. This is true of any industry, not just game development. q u o t i n
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Apr 6, 2019 15:33
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Gearman posted:None of these things are true with the current UK GWU. I'm all for explanations for how things would actually work. I'm very put off by the detailess demands. Not that anyone has to provide that, or that anyone has to convince me.
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Apr 6, 2019 15:49
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MJBuddy posted:Cool yeah, I'll just go through an incredibly long process of hostility with my employer on the off chance that a union succeeds so that I can give them a large chunk of my paycheck while I'll then be required to "figure it out" later in a process no one can describe to me ahead of time. Maybe it's different in whatever country you're in, but in the UK you are not obliged to tell your employer that you're in a union, so there's no need to worry about 'hostility' - until you have the critical mass to form a bargaining unit and a need to take action of some kind, in which case you already have a bunch of friends by your side and the might of the union's resources behind you to negotiate for what you need. It bears pointing out too that if your employer does find out and takes any kind of punitive action against you, that's illegal and an extremely winnable legal case that your union should be only too happy to fight for you. This, btw, is why people think 'there's no plan' - every workplace is different, every group of employees have different needs and grievances, and until they come together to do something about it the only 'plan' is 'we should do something together to solve our problems'. Which is why identifying those problems(ie, crunch) and discussing what we would like to see happen instead(ie, a cap on working hours in any given week) is so important, and something we do in every meeting of the union. If you're not coming to meetings or participating in discussions on Discord(and both of these are, to a certain extent, open to non-members to see how it all works), you're not going to see what's happening and what we're doing, because it's necessarily not a super public process. On that note! GWU UK has our first AGM at the end of this month - the 28th of April, in London - and non-members are totally encouraged to attend and find out what we're doing! Join in the conversation, help us form our plans, maybe you'll even want to join us?  If you're not able to attend in person, we'll have a way to join in online, we're still working out the details of that.
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Apr 6, 2019 16:00
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MJBuddy posted:I'm all for explanations for how things would actually work. I'm very put off by the detailess demands. My current union dues are £15 a month. Generally our relations with my employer is pretty good, the union mainly comes in play when representatives take part in pay negotiations and we vote on whether to accept the pay offer or not. The big union related thing came in when the parent company wanted to force a big pension change on us. The ballot rejected the original offer so the central union sent us a legal advisor and a trained negotiator to help us have another go at it, eventually getting the company to tone down the pension change and give us additional paid vacation days. We were advised on the potential for further action including strikes but ultimately the offer passed the ballot. Also I get a free magazine.
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Apr 6, 2019 16:02
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MJBuddy posted:I'm very put off by the detailess demands I'm getting a sense that you either (a) don't know what a union is and what unions have given the vast majority of Americans in the past 130 years (b) do know but are presenting yourself as open-minded to conceal stronger anti-labor under the surface, concern trolling about "details" with respect to a force that is more about response and deterrence today.
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Apr 6, 2019 16:08
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If you want details, here's a gameplay that sells extremely well: a) Form union b) Make demands that sell well to the public, your employees, and courts that drive up your membership and that leadership really can't fight in daylight. For example, demands that the gender pay gap in your industry be closed. c) Win suits against the initial surge of studios that decide to try to union bust d) [Insert list of your industry's labor issues here]. Address these issues. Unionization is one of very few legal means of addressing labor issues in a free society. Short of armed conflict or someone with deep pockets lobbying for more regulation of your industry, you do not have other means of meaningfully bargaining with leadership. It isn't a matter of "details" when this is the requisite stepping stone to determining what you're capable of doing. You can't change a thing without doing the things change requires. You cannot negotiate as an individual with an employer for, say, a new position without something to trade. The bargaining "I'll be freed up to provide X value in my new role" or "I have done Y things for you and have an offer from Z company, give me a reason to stay" is capitalism in action. The challenge with addressing some of the issues in your industry is that you have no structured unified voice. You as an individual can in your own mind determine how to bargain with your employer for a new title. You cannot negotiate on behalf of the workforce without the voice of the workforce. No one of you alone is valuable enough to be able to address the common needs of millions, and as you've said, there are enough people enthusiastic enough to simply replace you if y'all try to ask for things as individuals that management finds distasteful. Unionizing makes discrimination against you for bargaining illegal. It evens the playing field, and yes, this is a game. Potato Salad fucked around with this message at 16:32 on Apr 6, 2019 |
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Apr 6, 2019 16:25
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Is it hard to start a family as a game dev with the expectation that you work 50, 60 hours a week? Are women receiving less space than men, systematically? Does leadership pay only lip service to queer equality? Those are your "details." Signing everyone on to a union, informing leadership you have unionized, and demanding negotiation for your continued labor whole responding to their union-busting actions with lawsuits is such an obvious playbook that it feels like I'm trying to explain how counting numbers works to an adult Complaining about needing details without being able to enumerate those details missing is sealioning. There have been a few people above who posted about their labor union experiences, and there are more who can pull from recent labor history. If you don't enumerate your missing details, you will start to look like you know they can be addressed, giving you no further excuse to be sceptical about unionization. Potato Salad fucked around with this message at 16:42 on Apr 6, 2019 |
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Apr 6, 2019 16:37
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I bet everyone that got let go from Blizzard, one of the 'safest' places in games, wishes they were in a union. But their oompa loompa CEO wanted another boat so...
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Apr 6, 2019 16:39
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Potato Salad posted:Is it hard to start a family as a game dev with the expectation that you work 50, 60 hours a week? Are women receiving less space than men, systematically? Does leadership pay only lip service to queer equality? I'm pretty sure nobody is trying to make your straw-man into a real argument. Nobody is arguing that crunch is good, or any of those other points. What I want to see is a structure, an idea, a starting point for what a real practical solution to those problems looks like. As I mentioned above, SAG-AFTRA's solution to their industries problems is to set a minimum pay scale that all of their guild members adhere to and will act collectively to enforce. What would a solution like that look like for the game industry? Once we have the embryonic form of that, then we can debate. We can form it into a workable solution, into the right solution, into something that we can go out and convince people to contribute their dues and their individual iotas of bargaining power to support. Rehashing what we all agree the problems are, implying that I am somehow in favor of the bad things, and then demanding that I support your efforts to solve them without telling me how you plan to do that is not an effective way to garner my support. Why should I lend you my strength, why should I give you my power, limited though it may be, if you are not showing me how you plan to use it beyond 'solve our problems' and 'bargain'? Bargain for what?
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Apr 6, 2019 16:50
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I think as a members of the games industry, we all expect a detailed plan when starting something new, and expect few surprises or changes along the way.
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Apr 6, 2019 16:54
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quote:Once we have the embryonic form of that, then we can debate You are mixing up a union with an activist group. The point of an union is to create an organisation where you can have that discussion and develop those ideas.
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Apr 6, 2019 17:01
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Fangz posted:First the *forum for that debate has to exist*. Are we not having a debate in a forum right now? I disagree with the idea that we have to all join together just to have a discussion about what our actual end goals are. GWU could be leading this discussion across the media and larger internet today. All they need to do is lay out a couple of concrete proposals for potential opening positions in any collective bargaining situation. Closing the gender pay gap is a great example. If they made that a primary platform point, and applied a little thought to accounting for things like demand, supply, seniority, time off/maternity/paternity, etc., I think there could be a real, useful discussion about how we could pull together and improve our industry. I think they are too focused on the pulling together, and not the improving, or at least not the how of improving. I fully recognize that if they come up with a workable plan of action, or even the starting point of a workable plan, they will need the collective support of a large number of developers to actually implement it, but at the moment it feels like I am being asked to stand behind and support a paper tiger. My fear is that even if efforts like GWU are successful, and a bunch of people join up, they could then subsequently fall apart when it turns out that everyone has different ideas about how to proceed, and compromise proves difficult. It sounds like GWU-UK at least has some ideas for action. Reading between the lines, it sounds like they have funding and personnel to provide legal assistance to those of their members who are being individually mistreated, even if they have yet to attempt any specific industry-wide action. This sounds good to me. An American union/guild/group could have a similar starting point, but I haven't heard anyone trying that angle over here.
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Apr 6, 2019 17:13
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Star Warrior X posted:Why should I lend you my strength, why should I give you my power, limited though it may be, if you are not showing me how you plan to use it beyond 'solve our problems' and 'bargain'? Bargain for what? What power? You have zero power. Not even an iota. Individuals with big titles getting fed up and leaving, entire projects being massive failures, none of it made “bioware magic” go away. A union acts as a deterrent to crunch, unequal pay, and poor working conditions and that’s at least a start. Organizing has inherent value.
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Apr 6, 2019 17:19
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I provided an example in closing the gender pay gap. That's a straightforward goal for signing people on to an infant labor union, and something that's easy to focus on as the labor union ages though childhood. The above two posters make great points I'll add on to in metaphor. 1) Labor isn't a product that ships and is done. You're starting with an indie "game" that sells well on simplicity and charisma. An indie game that has been made before elsewhere, but you still feel has to be made. Choosing the gender pay gap is a great indie game to shoot for. It's something you can sell as an idea to get your first studio talent hired. When you ship that product, you have a small studio of people too! Decide on a DLC together -- perhaps better PTO for new mothers. Go for simple things. You'll grow with time and iteration. 2) Labor unions are studios, not products. You don't actually need a design document -- you actually need SOPs and best practices. Fortunately, labor isn't a new industry and you can choose what your operating policies and practices with be organically. You can refactor these later as your union studio learns more later -- there's a reason unions have proposal and voting mechanisms. You can cross bridges as you get to them, especially with the body of experience and history available from other industry unions. There are ample stories available here in SA sand elsewhere online and IRL of people who got a bee in their bonnet one day, decided "I'm gong to unionize," talked to IWW or some other agency, talked to their peers, signed cards, and suddenly found themselves unionized. Then they strategize. Those who have told you otherwise has swindled you. Potato Salad fucked around with this message at 17:25 on Apr 6, 2019 |
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Apr 6, 2019 17:21
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You can't make your design document without the requisite forum. You can't make a design document without knowing your capabilities To use another metaphor, what kind of VC asks for a decade's worth of hyperdetailed planning? If there is one, that VC misses out on opportunities, every time. Oversimplified, an early investor is often looking for a strong, in-demand product ("close the gender pay gap") and someone with the vision and judgment to make the right decisions as they come up. You're a startup union CEO right now. You presumptively have a goal, let's keep using "close gender pay gap at my workplace." The metaphor isn't perfect, but you need investors -- people willing to sign up with your union by investing their bargaining interest. Frankly, people who need the entire design document laid out just aren't compatible with startups. Potato Salad fucked around with this message at 17:34 on Apr 6, 2019 |
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Apr 6, 2019 17:26
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Star Warrior X posted:Are we not having a debate in a forum right now? I disagree with the idea that we have to all join together just to have a discussion about what our actual end goals are. Look, you don't have to take part in the decision making process. You don't have to be a founding member of any union, you can wait until other folks discuss things and come up with motions before signing on. But the core of an union is not a 'platform' but rather a *process* whereby folks come together, submit motions, make decisions, and the organisation can then go and enact that consensus decision. Platforms can change, and there will be always individual points individual members don't like. The idea that consensus decision making leads to the entire union working towards the motion is what gives the union power, and stops it from fragmenting on the basis of each minor decision. That's not equivalent to random strangers chatting on a dead gay comedy website, no. You are basically going 'why should Congress exist, why can't we just chat on Twitter'. Edit: The point of it is to have a democratic power structure in the workplace outside of profit centric shareholders and whatever whims of the management. Even if you are all completely happy with how your company is being run, the point of the union is still there as a safeguard so that the CEO knows that if they try and fire a third of the staff for no reason an emergency meeting will be held and the union can consider action. Fangz fucked around with this message at 17:34 on Apr 6, 2019 |
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Apr 6, 2019 17:27
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Star Warrior X posted:Are we not having a debate in a forum right now? I disagree with the idea that we have to all join together just to have a discussion about what our actual end goals are. GWU could be leading this discussion across the media and larger internet today. All they need to do is lay out a couple of concrete proposals for potential opening positions in any collective bargaining situation. Closing the gender pay gap is a great example. If they made that a primary platform point, and applied a little thought to accounting for things like demand, supply, seniority, time off/maternity/paternity, etc., I think there could be a real, useful discussion about how we could pull together and improve our industry. Don't hold your breath on the industry's leadership spending more than token money towards addressing the problem. We're in a forum, sure. There are other forums of the games industry, sure. Which of them has the hard power to demand unattractive, expensive change from a CEO?
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Apr 6, 2019 17:36
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I just know the voice actors now get a better deal out of the work they do for games because of their union. Better than some of the guys that actually work on the game. Maybe you're in a good spot. Or maybe you're not and you think you are. Maybe you think you're too good for unions. Why not reward people off of their worth instead of their ability to argue?
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Apr 6, 2019 17:42
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rising tide lifts all ships
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Apr 6, 2019 18:54
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If you're struggling to figure out what the union should do and how to do it once it's formed, that's one functions of a union. They let information flow between people in the industry independent of the work place power dynamic, if you aren't in a union you're only going to have your own info (from experience or the web etc) and the people you're in contact with. With a big union you can have lots of statistics from all across the industry and then process it down into a easily distributed form that you can inform and empower the industry workers with. Trying to keep workers in little bubbles of information that only directly relates to their work is pretty standard anti-union, anti-worker practice.
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Apr 7, 2019 03:06
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Buckwheat Sings posted:I bet everyone that got let go from Blizzard, one of the 'safest' places in games, wishes they were in a union. To be fair, I don't think a union would've saved the laid off workers at Activision Blizzard. There's a reason the corporate-speak term you often hear for layoffs is "redundancies". Without Destiny 2, there was an awful lot of workers twiddling their thumbs with nothing to do, and unlikely Activision would've found anything for them to do within a year, if anything. What a union could've done is allow those workers more advance notice for the cuts and negotiate a buyout package for when it happened. Star Warrior X posted:As I mentioned above, SAG-AFTRA's solution to their industries problems is to set a minimum pay scale that all of their guild members adhere to and will act collectively to enforce. What would a solution like that look like for the game industry? Once we have the embryonic form of that, then we can debate. Alright, let's start with... "A minimum pay scale that all games workers adhere to and will collectively enforce"?  Anti-union efforts all rely on a very strong cognitive bias, which is believing you don't need something (until you do). This is why so many American states have these backwards "right-to-work" laws and why we're even having to debate this. Corporations and bosses can easily phrase this as a "you work so much harder than this guy, why should he be paid as much as you are?" argument and workers fall for it hook, line and sinker because work has become such an ingrained part of our lives that the very prospect of someone else earning the perceived slight of better conditions/compensations for the same/less effort is so viscerally unpalatable. And then when there's a change of situation and you're no longer needed, it doesn't matter if you did better/worse than that guy, both your heads are on the chopping block and they will roll along with the health benefits and security that is intrinsically tied to employment (in the US). Until jobs are no longer about survival but about comfort, unions benefit all of us. Fangz posted:You are basically going 'why should Congress exist, why can't we just chat on Twitter'. To be fair that's not a very good example, but it passes because the only thing more dysfunctional than Congress nowadays has to be arguing on social media. 
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Apr 7, 2019 06:24
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Jan posted:To be fair, I don't think a union would've saved the laid off workers at Activision Blizzard. There's a reason the corporate-speak term you often hear for layoffs is "redundancies". Without Destiny 2, there was an awful lot of workers twiddling their thumbs with nothing to do, and unlikely Activision would've found anything for them to do within a year, if anything. Do you (royal you?) believe that these union efforts extend to not strictly game developers? Most of the recent layoffs have been to Sales, Marketing, Production, Analytics departments, etc. I've seen massive Twitter threads arguing amongst game industry employees about who and what game dev actually includes. Is it just designers, art folks, and those who produce the game under the game developer studio? Is it everyone employed by game studios and publishers? Even chefs and cleaning staff? So I'm not even sure of the scope of the union. I'm not sure if I'm actually part of the discussion or not. It feels like the union efforts knee-jerk reaction is to say it's everyone because bigger union is stronger union, but most of their primary topics of discussion (and their audience, at events like GDC) don't focus on the same issues that affect layoffs in Marketing, HR, Finance, etc. So I waver to think that means the union doesn't include those roles. But then articles like the one posted here, or the weekly Kotaku piece on unions cites layoffs that are mostly to those roles and it confuses me more.
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Apr 7, 2019 16:17
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Jan posted:Alright, let's start with... "A minimum pay scale that all games workers adhere to and will collectively enforce"? That's not a starting point, it's an example of an ending point. SAG-AFTRA has over 150000 members and has existed for almost 100 years. Also, the film industry is not the same as the game industry, so we can't simply copy their documents and use them as our own. Alright, how about this as a solid plan for an American union/guild/collective of game developers or maybe even tech workers in general: 1. Contact some high profile labor laywers or large law firm with a strong labor team. Share this plan with them and get them on board, willing to announce that they are working with this effort. 2. In the buildup to GDC 2020, release this plan publicly (more realistically, release whatever this plan morphs into after constructive debate) and stage a membership drive at the conference. Seek members, funds in the form of dues, and donations from high-profile members of the community. 3. Collect grievances from members. Listen to specific instances of the stories we all know. Look especially for instances of mistreatment that warrant successful legal action. 4. Use the money from step 2 to hire the attorneys/negotiators from step 1 and prosecute the most winnable and most egregious cases from step 3. Win them. Be seen to be using our collective strength to help people who really needed help, people like us who were badly mistreated by those in power. Keep some percentage of any settlement money to fund further efforts. 5. Repeat steps 3 and 4, looking for patterns in settlement terms, patterns in mistreatment, and common bad actors. 6. Use the patterns recognized in step 5 to create a manifesto listing the behaviors we will not tolerate, and the likely legal outcomes of violations. 7. Leverage our legal success record to grow the membership to the point where funding levels might support collective withdrawal of labor from an entire studio. 7. Vote on the manifesto as a binding list of causes for collective action, up to and including strikes. 8. Repeat steps 3-7 for the slightly-less-egregious-but-still-unfair business practices, and continue to use our collective power to improve the industry.
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Apr 7, 2019 17:24
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The point of unions is to address practices that are not (currently) illegal. It's not a gofundme for lawsuits.
Fangz fucked around with this message at 20:32 on Apr 7, 2019 |
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Apr 7, 2019 20:28
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MJBuddy posted:I've seen massive Twitter threads arguing amongst game industry employees about who and what game dev actually includes. Is it just designers, art folks, and those who produce the game under the game developer studio? Is it everyone employed by game studios and publishers? Even chefs and cleaning staff? Larger unions represent management, engineers, support, etc in different pools. This is to ensure there is a lack of conflict of interest when, as an example, an engineer has a problem with a manager and both are members of the union.
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Apr 7, 2019 22:25
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Fangz posted:The point of unions is to address practices that are not (currently) illegal. It's not a gofundme for lawsuits. In that case, is there no middle ground purpose for a union or guild? Nothing it can do that requires less collective power than the full ability to strike against a studio, to back up its collective negotiating stances? Does this truly need to be a one-step process, from nothing to full-blown every-studio-vs-a-union-rep contract negotiation all at once? If the answers to those questions are yes, that the only thing a union is good for is negotiating a collective contract with each studio management, then all of the points I have been arguing against make a lot more sense. There would be no need for a plan of action, because the only plan of action is: 1. Get enough power to demand a collective agreement. 2. Do so. 3. Negotiate that agreement. Is that basically the point you're making?
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Apr 7, 2019 22:43
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