Why doesn't the game industry unionize already?

fdfxd2

I'm not sure if this is the right category for this post but {{title}},

With the recently unveiled horror stories of what it was like working on anthem(and andromeda), and the many many other horror stories, I and many others wonder why the game industry doesn't unionize

Are they afraid that the companies will fire they? Pretty sure that's illegal in most of the developed world and  they can't fire *all of you*. Besides, the voice actors did it, last I checked they're still getting work.

Am I just missing something?

Alex_J

did you read that NY Times article? I just did.

I dunno much about the industry, but I do know that one of the hardest things in the world to do is get people organized. Usually takes catastrophe to get people on the same sheet of music.

Zack Maxwell

I don't know about other countries, but I'm like 99% sure they can fire you over that in the US.
A lot of places force you to sign paperwork before getting hired that basically says they can let you go for whatever reason they feel like without any explanation required.
I've heard Walmart in particular will fire people for even mentioning unionization, and frequently try to feed anti-union propaganda to employees.
Ironically, stuff like that is part of what unions are supposed to protect against.

poopipe

There's not much point in Europe - labour laws protect workers from exploitation pretty effectively (to the point where it's really hard to fire someone even if they're genuinely useless)  

zachagreg

From what I know about the IATSE forming which is the major US union for the film industry (actor and crew side, I don't know if it applies to  the VFX/ cg side) there were massive strikes for theaters happening because of the dilapidated and dangerous sets. This was later rolled into the movie industry when a lot of theater began transitioning to the film world. Actors and crew had the same talents so it was a new industry to make an art form that was quickly ramping up. The thing with that is IATSE became a union because the strikers won over those companies and individuals that wouldn't treat them right by massive strikes and legal actions. There was a large portion of time where the strikers were out of work and replaced by "strikebreakers". Basically a lot of talented strikers were replaced with less talented strike breakers, this is a generalization so a grain of salt, and revenue declined because quality of crew and product declined. 

Eventually with the lawsuits and the revenue fall off the IATSE won out and was able to come to an agreement with the companies and producers for fair and reasonable treatment and wages to the Union members. Now many movies/ shows can't film without IATSE members leading it and working it. At least in the South East USA.

Unless things come to a head people don't want to strike and lose their jobs for a bunch of "strikebreakers" to come in and be happy to work those conditions. There are also laws that make it harder to form a Union in the US now. IATSE inception was in 1893 with the earliest recorded meetings and formings in 1886. Even that is a 7 year difference from formulation to implementation. That's a long time to be out of work.

CrackRockSteady

@BIGTIMEMASTER makes a good point, in that organizing large numbers of people is not easy to do.  Efforts are already underway to push the industry toward unionization, these things just don't happen overnight.  Trying to convince an entire industry, tens if not hundreds of thousands of people, to all organize and agree on something, is a monumental task.