The game studios changing the industry by unionizing

From Polygon: "The game industry is changing. After years of groundwork over the past decade, laid over social media and in the halls of gatherings like the Game Developers Conference, workers are organizing into unions in their fight against a history of overwork, low pay, and harassment. Unions are on the rise in the game industry as workers seek to make meaningful, sustainable change.

Industry change is following a nationwide trend in worker organization: Over the past few years, there’s been an uptick in union elections and unfair labor complaints as workers vow to make change in their workplaces. You can see this reflected in headlines, too — alongside union efforts at Activision Blizzard and Microsoft, campaigns are ongoing at major corporations like Apple, Google, and Starbucks."

[XiNatsuDragnel]

Unions imo it's good for industry.

[crazyCoconuts]

Unions are never good for the industry. They're good for protecting workers. Unfortunately, even when they aren't competent. It's a very efficient way to stifle innovation, increase bureaucracy, and cost to the consumer. Sure, it also protects workers beyond the already existing labor laws if you think that's necessary. Not worth the downsides though imo

[Michiel1989]

not in a creative industry, more satisfied employees will create better work.

[crazyCoconuts]

Hard to fire people in a union. So if you're a manager and you guys stuck with a dolt, good luck to you. That drags the product down, no matter what the product. They also control pay so managers have less freedom to reward the best performers... So great performers leave and you're stuck with all the rest

[ikarodemon]

Totally agree. From my point of view as a game industry worker unions do more harm than good.

[MadLad]

Just laughing at those who are against unions.

[Software_Lover]

As with most things, it's not as black and white as that.

[ABizzel1]

It's because Unions can be hit or miss, and not always an ideal solution for everyone. Anyone who's worked as union members / boards, or for companies where union changed their employment for the worse has the understands the bad side of things that come with a union.

@crazyCoconuts gave perfect examples of how unions can ruin companies because his example explains the US Government and AT&T perfectly. A union protects everyone, even people we all know should be fired because they're a nightmare to the staff, they don't know how to do their jobs well regardless of training meaning someone has to now spend hours fixing their work making more work for everyone, and they collective destroy work culture. That's for the mass population, in terms of work.

As for top performers, pay is generally standardized, meaning there is less incentive for going above and beyond, because no matter what you're getting the same pay. In commission / talent based jobs this is a job killer because top-tier talent will seek other employment, leaving the company with mediocre talent or worse, said people who kill work culture and don't care about learning how to do their job, which overall tanks the company, causing non-stop escalations, etc...

So a union is not always a good thing or a cure. For the games industry, it's going to be a double-edged sword.

You might get rid of crunch, but that means everyone moves to salary. The people who were okay working the extra hours for overtime pay, no longer have that option, and that overtime could have been an extra $1,000 - $2,500 per week depending on the hours worked and their pay. Or an extra $4,000 - $10,000 for a month that they might have wanted due to debt, vacation, a personal gift, etc...

On the flip side everyone gets fair base pay across the nation of $60,000 + 10% salary bonus upon successful game launch. That's $60,000 per year, $66,000 the year the game comes out, (an instant $6,000 check). Yeah people who contribute to development like modifying work, or artist who touch up textures, etc... might be super happy going from $20/hr. working on an as-needed basis, but the level designer responsible for building worlds who is integral to the game's development and one of the greatest assets to the overall business goes from making $60,000 + 1% bonus of the games overall net sales ($50m), to the unions $60,000 + 10% salary bonus. He went from $60,000 + $500,000k, down to $60,000 + $6,000k, meaning the union F***ed him, and he's going to either have to promote up for a higher salary (but he may not even be a good communicator / leader), or he's going to quit and find work elsewhere.

#Union.

And all of this is coming from someone who is a union representative.

[crazyCoconuts]

Tell me.... How does that make you feel?

[The3faces]

Actually worker's can and do get fired while belonging to a union. Also unions don't control pay they negotiate pay raises for workers. If not management usually relies on favoritism which causes good and overlooked workers to go elsewhere.

[jznrpg]

@The3faces favoritism happens with companies who’s employees are in a union also. I’ve seen it myself

[ikarodemon]

Don't expect legal devices to make people act more humanely. It's a short path that does more harm than good. Improving people's education over the long term always works best.