There\u2019s been a lot of talk about unionization in the game industry, so today at GDC some union workers took the stage in front of an audience of game makers to share what they\u2019d learned about effectively organizing labor. <\/p>\n
During the hour-long session panel members Emma Kinema (Game Workers Unite International), Kevin Gregory Agwaze (Game Workers Unite UK), Linda Dao (SAG-AFTRA), Justin Molito (Writers Guild of America, East) and Liz Shuler of AFL-CIO (which published an open letter<\/a> encouraging game devs to organize) fielded some notable labor questions from game devs.<\/p>\n It was a fast-paced discussion that spanned a lot of topics, so if you have time (and access) you might want to rewatch it when the recording eventually goes up on the GDC Vault<\/a>.<\/p>\n While the latter half was dedicated to audience questions, Kinema first introduced everyone on the panel, which together spanned experience organizing voice actors, writers, game developers, electricians, and more.<\/p>\n Right up front, Agwaze acknowledged that while he and his collaborators helped organize the United Kingdom’s first game dev union<\/a>, they had to do it by focusing on the national level, rather than taking a more traditional company-by-company approach.<\/p>\n \u201cAs opposed to unionizing shop by shop, by forming a national union, you have a lot of members,\u201d acknowledged Agwaze, but \u201cit\u2019s a space that traditional unions aren\u2019t super sure how to approach yet. It\u2019s been a space that\u2019s been traditionally not unionized, and it\u2019s a challenge to figure out how to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe most important lesson there is to make sure that we listen, as organizers,” added Molito, who talked a bit about his experience helping organize writers at digital media companies like Vice and Gawker. “When we\u2019re trained as organizers we\u2019re told we have two ears and one mouth, and thus we should be doing twice as much listening. So as an organization we listened very closely to what the people in the digital media sector were saying. They were talking about overwork, underpay, and other common issues.\u201d<\/p>\n Molito says his experience helping writers to unionize taught him the importance of using modern digital tools to organize, at a workplace level and (more importantly) across the whole movement.<\/p>\n \u201cOne lesson that was extremely important…is having a movement approach\u201d, added Molito. \u201cSo we\u2019re not talking about organizing one shop, or one place, that happens to be the bad place to work. We\u2019re talking about organizing the entire industry, so standards are set across the board, no matter what company you\u2019re working for on any given day…we\u2019re no longer working in an economy where people work at one place for 30-40 years. People jump from place to place all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n The game industry often works the same way, and Agwaze advises anyone trying to organize labor in this business to make as much noise as possible, as often as possible, in as many different channels as possible. It’s a key piece of Game Workers U.K.’s strategy, not only because it’s good marketing but because at this early stage in organizing, there’s just a lot of questions to be asked and answered.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have a newsletter that\u2019s biweekly, we have a Discord where people can speak to us, we are going to have a weekly meeting just with our membership, where everyone can join and ask questions,\u201d added Agwaze. \u201cWe also have regional meetings once a month…so people can meet up in real life, and get to know each other. We just constantly communicate what we\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n Since most game industry workers aren\u2019t familiar with what unions are or how they work, Agwaze says his nascent union has had to work hard to keep spreading the word about what they\u2019re doing. The fast pace of work in the game industry hasn\u2019t helped.<\/p>\n \u201cEveryone is working really hard, they\u2019re crunching, so…sometimes we also have to work hard to show them what we\u2019re doing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n SAG-AFTRA’s also cautioned game makers not to overlook the value and necessity of making time for one-on-one conversations when you’re trying to organize a group of workers. People need to feel enthusiastic about being part of something bigger, and direct face-to-face conversations are a great way to do that.<\/p>\n \u201cYou want to make sure that people are educated…that people are involved, and excited to be involved,\u201d added Dao. \u201cSo one-on-ones are super important.\u201d<\/p>\n Shuler jumped in to say that, on the bright side, she\u2019s seen a recent surge in labor organization, citing the recent Marriott workers strike<\/a> as a good example of how workers can successfully fight for better pay and more protection on the job.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re seeing a movement moment,\u201d she added. \u201cI think people are discovering that they don\u2019t have to sit back and take it. They can fight back.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI don’t think it\u2019s much to ask, in an industry that\u2019s three times the size of Hollywood, to get a meaningful return on the risk you\u2019re taking and the opportunity you\u2019re creating,\u201d Shuler continued. \u201cThe law protects workers who want to come together, no matter what your workplace looks like or what kind of work you do.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt really is about this power dynamic,\u201d she continued. \u201cWhat we\u2019re seeing, not just in this industry but everywhere, is this concentration where the profits go to a handful of people, and the working people get the short end of the stick.”<\/p>\n Shuler believes a lot of people in the game industry (and the world at large) have an outdated understanding of what labor unions do, and how members can benefit. They can offer viable portable health benefits, for example, which might be valuable in a game industry which regularly sees independent workers and workers between jobs asking for money on platforms like GoFundMe to help cover medical expenses.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople think portable benefits is a new concept,\u201d added Shuler. \u201cIt\u2019s not. Unions have been giving workers benefits for decades.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s happening is the massive disparity of wealth inequality in this country,” added Molito. “There are a few people that are taking everybody\u2019s money and making people work like 60-70 hours a week, and giving them just enough to survive to continue producing wealth.”<\/p>\n “The solution to that is mass organizing into militant, strong labor unions.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s obviously enormous fear about collective action, because the organizations you\u2019re fighting against have all the power,\u201d Molito continued. \u201cBut you find, when you talk to people who are in the same situation that you are, that there\u2019s going to be a lot of solidarity.\u201d<\/p>\n So if you want to get involved, Molito recommends you get out there and find other workers in a similar situation, both within your organization and without. <\/p>\n \u201cReally just develop that solidarity by talking to each other about what you\u2019re experiencing,\u201d he advised.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re used to working in an open-source environment and solving problems collectively,\u201d added Shuler. \u201cYou can apply those same skills and techniques to organizing.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s all about talking to the people you work with,\u201d said Dao. \u201cFind out their problems, and make connections…we\u2019re all facing these problems, and we want to fight for better conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n The latter half of the panel was turned over to the audience to ask questions, so we’ve gone ahead and excerpted some of the better ones below”<\/p>\n \u201cThe independent development scene looks a little bit to me like the independent film scene in our union,\u201d said Molito. \u201cThe thing that worked for our union in that space is the community-building: so we\u2019ll have an independent film caucus where people working in isolated situations can get together to talk about their craft, their funders, their problems, and look for solutions collectively.”<\/p>\n \u201cAnd then also the union has a contract that can be negotiated whereby you would be, if you\u2019re the indie game developers and you\u2019re working as a self-owned entity, then you can become a signatory to the union contract and become eligible for health insurance.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s been a debate because traditionally we\u2019ve seen people organized around craft,\u201d added Shuler. \u201cBut for folks who are independent, who aren\u2019t employees, under the National Labor Relations Act<\/a>, you\u2019re not eligible, I guess, to form a traditional union as an independent contractor. So that\u2019s where we\u2019re seeing these new models take hold, like Uber drivers<\/a> or the taxi drivers<\/a>…people who have traditionally been on their own, and who have banded together to negotiate.\u201d<\/p>\n She adds that as the “gig economy” model takes hold and employers are steadily making moves to try and take less responsibility for their workers, \u201cbecause they don\u2019t want to be employers anymore,\u201d modern labor should be thinking about how to organize on a larger scale than the companies they work for.<\/p>\n \u201cOf course we\u2019re going to fight that, but we also need to figure out a path forward for workers who want to come together in a different way,” Shuler continued. “As someone who works independently, you still want to have access to affordable healthcare. You still want to maybe buy a home someday…so I think we\u2019re looking at a model of how we can open up the labor movement\u2019s scale, to leverage that for worker who aren\u2019t necessarily employees.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOne example from SAG-AFTRA is that choreographers are not considered part of our union,\u201d added Dao. \u201cWe do cover dancers, but then the choreographers created their own space…a choreographers’ alliance…where they still talk to one another and are actually able to create minimums for each other. So I think there are ways, using this alliance model, to make inroads into organizing and to show solidarity with your colleagues.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe know that choreographers have a super specialized skill set, and a lot of them will be in solidarity with the dancers,\u201d added Dao. \u201cAnd then the choreographers will go to other shows, and if they\u2019re on tour with an artist, and they\u2019ll float these ideas and help organize in that way. So there is that solidarity and that education going on.\u201d<\/p>\n Agwaze said that it\u2019s tricky to draw the line at who counts as a \u201cgame worker\u201d and who doesn\u2019t. In theory, “game workers” is a very broad and inclusive group — but it makes practical sense to focus on workers employed directly by the game industry while Game Workers U.K. is still trying to expand its foothold.<\/p>\n \u201cAnybody who is involved in the process of making games is, at some level, in the union,\u201d he said. \u201cWhether it\u2019s user-generated content, or modders, or esports players. But the game industry is a big place where it\u2019s hard to get the solidarity you need form all the workers. So until we can get the foothold we need in this industry, we don\u2019t want ot stretch ourselves too hard, and not cover all our bases.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe organizing we\u2019ve been doing since 2015 has all been outside the National Labor Relations Board, which enforces the National Labor Relations Act,\u201d Molito answered.<\/p>\n \u201cIn many ways it\u2019s a law set up to prevent people from organizing, so we\u2019ve been organizing outside of it…so people who, under that law, would be seen as managers, they can still join our union…we\u2019ve found it useful to sometimes have people in the union who have more power, and may be able to get more from the company.\u201d<\/p>\n Kinema jumped in to share her own advice, noting that \u201cI think it\u2019s really crucial that when you\u2019re organizing with those types of folks, one I\u2019d say bring them on after you\u2019ve organized many of the base-level workers. And secondly, when you\u2019re organizing, make sure the actual structure of the organization…is taking into account the natural power dynamics that some of these leads, directors, and supervisors tend to have in the company. So they\u2019re not overriding anyone’s voice.”<\/p>\n In closing out the talk, Shuler wound up encouraging game makers to feel strong and righteous about trying to organize, but not to necessarily go to the negotiating table with a confrontational attitude up front.<\/p>\n \u201cThe scenario we see most often is very confrontational,\u201d she explained. \u201cBut there are scenarios where employers and managers will work with you to form a union. And they are rare, but we should approach this effort with the rationale that hey, we want to do better. We want to have a seat at the table, we want to be a shareholder, and have a voice\u2026.we can\u2019t always assume that management is our enemy. In some cases, middle management benefits when there\u2019s a union in the company.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There\u2019s been a lot of talk about unionization in the game industry, so today at GDC some union workers took the stage in front of an audience of game makers to share what they\u2019d learned about effectively organizing labor. 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