Curious how unions work?
polycounter lvl 19
Some older polycounters might remember I was keen on unionizing back in the early 2000s in games. I still am, but remember the frustration at how little interest their was among other game devs. I've switched careers and now am a member of an active union and wanted to share my experience, now that I've seen a renewed interest in the concept of unions in the game industry.
I'm a cook, which is a skilled labor class but considered part of the "low wage workers" and rather than a specialty union like welders or midwives, I belong to a general union. We're quite large, 80% female members, and the largest union of immigrants. I pay a fee each month that goes to fund the union, and the union uses this pooled money to pay the salary of the union staff as well as fund the various union funds.
Since I've been a member, I've gotten a raise, a shorter work week, 5 more vacation days (30 now a year), doubled paternity leave, and larger pay raises per education I achieve. Pay is negotiated via unions and then applies to a scale, more schooling means higher salary. Want a raise? go back to school. The union will pay the tuition too, and our higher education isn't ruinous in cost.
We went on strike! We wanted a raise, and the city of Reykjavík said "nah". Without a union that'd be the end of it, but with a union we voted (93% of members voted), approved the strike (by a huge majority) and then told our bosses we weren't showing up. The strike lasted about a month, and any days we were on strike were paid by the union from their strike fund (the monthly fees also partially go to funding this pool). We won the strike because the city can't function without the kitchen staff, cleaners, and other "low skilled" staff that are so often looked down upon. This is us marching into city hall with drums, signs, bullhorns, and righteous fury at being underpaid.
I'm currently a council member. There are 15 full time staff, but 115 random members who meet at the same time, to give "normal voice" to the unions decisions. It's about democracy and having a voice. We meet once a month, have an agenda to talk about, what we're doing at the moment, wins of the past, etc. Currently we are working on making wage theft illegal. Currently when employers steal from their employees by repeat and systematic "oopsies" in accounting, there is no penalty, not in the USA or in Iceland. The totals stolen from employees outweighs all other forms of thievery in both nations.
We all used the previous meeting to email the Prime Minister and Trade Minister about making this illegal with a fine, and the union heads spent the past month going on various talk shows and interviews to explain why it's such an egregious crime. The neoliberal centrist in the trade minister role created a law that is even worse than the current one as a response. Rather than just being salty at home like I would be without a union, we are not taking the insult sitting down and will look at further options, which we have at hand because we're organized. If we have to strike to get criminal penalties on wage theft, we will.
I'm a huge fan of organized labor. I have 30 vacation days, universal healthcare not connected to my employment, six months of paid paternity leave, and raises way beyond inflation - and I'm a cook for a city government. If I didn't have a union and had this same role in another nation, my pay and benefits would be lower.
America used to have strong labor unions and it worked to keep quality of life high and a power balance between the capital class. This is why they have been belittled and poo-poo'ed and undermined so that Americans won't like the concept of unions. There has also been legislation like making it illegal for managers to join unions, or that when a union wins a right, everyone gets the right even if they aren't a member - making joining and paying the due not very logical, which over time sucks members and funding out of the union. General strikes are illegal in the US whereas they aren't in most of the world, and many other anti-union activities because management and the owners know that unions work to balance out power, and they don't want to share.
Standing up for yourself is always risky, but nothing is gained without struggle, and it's way easier with colleagues to your side who have your back. I've watched game developer salary, benefits, job security, and work-life balance decline every year. Without some kind of collective line in the sand, that trend isn't going to change on it's own.
Replies
Great post to give insight to others. Keep kicking ass and sticking it to the thieving man.
/Kostas
I guess the industry is still too young, and too many people view crunch as part of some sort of hardcore lifestyle that they romanticize rather than the systemic abuse it is.
In any case, great post Ben, this is a topic that desperately needs to be discussed.
A dream job of many a person is to be a game designer or to get paid to be involved in the creation of games. Art is often driven first by passion. Ideas of getting paid for ones art come later or are a hopeful dream. The passion and dreams of industry newcomers can be exploited to suppress pay and overwork employees. Also, the tech involved in games is ever changing, so industry vets' knowledge can become outdated if they don't keep up. New comers, on the other hand, may be better equipped with fresh knowledge of the latest tech. This dynamic of employment competition degrades job security and makes it less likely for people to unionize.
I love the ease at which I can find information about game dev on the internet. It's how I learned and continue to learn about 3D game art. One can learn virtually everything about game dev virtually. The last thing I want is for information about game dev to disappear from the internet, but I think that that free access to information has enabled a lot more people learn game dev, thus increasing employment competition in that space. And with art outsourcing one doesn't even need to live near or work at a game studio.
To expound a little bit, if we zoom out to 1800s, there were massive people's movements all over the world. Some of them won their struggles, like in the case of Russia, some won huge compromises with labor getting strong powers and good quality of life like most of Europe, and some were mostly decimated like in the USA. The regroup after the castle breach was to implement new moats and traps to prevent another attempt to storm the walls of power, some of those things were anti labor legislation that made unions and union activity way harder, others were deliberately fomenting animosity between groups to distract from their (capital's) much larger immorality.
Fighting for unions now is kind of a reverse tactic. The original struggle was full ownership of resources, and the compromise after was unions and negotiations between capital. I'm all for unions, but it will be just as difficult a battle as fighting for full ownership to begin with, which might have to end again in labor V capital formal negotiations again - unions. Capital always brings it's full boot down at any resistance. Walmart will shut down an entire store completely at a whiff of union organizing.
Shoot for the moon. :-)
https://animationguild.org/
Some FX workers would be covered by IATSE union divisions
https://castifi.com/2020/03/24/list-of-film-industry-unions/
https://jacobinmag.com/2017/11/disney-animators-strike-union-busting
https://www.awn.com/animationworld/disney-strike-1941-how-it-changed-animation-comics