One of the largest unions in the United States has recognized the appeal of the gaming industry union and has launched a new campaign.
The American Association of Communications Workers has launched a new project to establish unions for workers in the technology and video game industries.
CWA has partnered with another prominent developer union advocate, Game Workers Unite, to organize the Digital Workers Organization Movement (CODE). GWU co-founder Emma Kinema is now spearheading a new campaign within CWA.
According to the Los Angeles Times, CWA also signed a partnership with Game Workers Unite's Toronto Chapter.
Emma Kinema told the Los Angeles Times: "Based on my experience of self-organizing in the gaming industry, people are very bottlenecked by lack of resources, lack of legal expertise, and lack of funding."
"Decades of experience and resources accumulated in cooperation with organizations like CWA can take it to the next level."
CWA's union structure is company-oriented and aims to create a union for all employees, unlike other unions that seek to unionize work across the industry, and have nothing to do with employers.
With that in mind, Tom Smith, the main organizer of CWA, said that if this is the direction the gaming industry wants to take, CWA is willing to accept the idea of a discipline-based union.
Kinema agrees with CWA's original model, saying: "We believe that when workers are together in a workshop in a union, they are the most powerful, so there is no conflict between disciplines, which is not good for workers. .
"I think the wall-to-wall industrial model is the most appropriate in the field of games and technology."
This is a serious step that promises to lead to the formation of unions for video game developers, especially at the major publishers, which are often the most common offenders. If nothing else, CODE has a real opportunity to educate workers in the industry on union welfare and encourage grassroots organizations to work in unions.
