Emma Kinema, founder of Game Workers Unite – a governing body committed to uniting the video game industry – has joined American communications staff, one of the largest and most influential trade unions. In partnership with Wes McEnany, who has experience in combating low wage increases in Boston and St. Louis, they will lead a new staffing program in the field of sports and technology. Called the Digital Workforce Planning Campaign, its mission is to support corporate efforts in both the sports and technology sectors.
The Community Workers of America, or CWA, represents more than 700,000 public and private employees in a variety of fields, including education, legal and manufacturing. On its basis, CWA is a group of employees in the telecommunications industry, internet technology, media and entertainment industries with their expertise that best aligns with the video and technology sectors.
"The infrastructure laid down by those members of the 70s and 80s is the foundation upon which more internet infrastructure is built," Kinema told Polygon. "That idea of meeting my brothers, sisters and brothers in working to collaborate and improve infrastructure is also very cool."
Kinema says the CWA support will give the game power to developers who want to form unions and work to improve working conditions in their studios. Concerns about the game's personnel are well documented. Talking points include issues such as crunch, the practice of working long hours for weeks and months at a time. Including layoffs, which happen at an alarming rate. But, Kinema says, work ethic is a major problem.
He emphasized, "The standards apply." “I have many friends who come to work in the theaters and the technical field where they work for a reason; because they want to leave a positive impact on the world and they want to create things that help people, connect people and make life easier for people. These are working conditions. ”
He also cited workers' efforts at Riot Games meetings, which in 2019 took their employer into action to prevent workers from completing cases. Another attempt to stand aside occurred in Blizzard, during which workers there spoke out against the company's reaction to the democratic protests in Hong Kong.
Those types of behavioral concerns, Kinema said, are also accompanied by similar efforts employees at Amazon, Google, and Microsoft forcefully demanding business ethics from their employers.
"I think most people want to make sure that this technology is used for the good and that we use our prices when we use these products," Kinema said. “I think you see how the technical staff has been organizing lately climate change and Terminating contracts with ICE and Principles of AI and security and confidential information. ”
In fact, Kinema told Polygon in 2018 that we would start seeing the first video game unions in North America publicly exposed to their efforts in 2019. That didn't happen, but he says it was not for failing to try.
"I have personally participated in every single video (video game) effort in North America," Kinema said. “Organizing staff takes a long time, because we are not just talking about big public actions and signing petitions and removing banners where everyone gathers. Employee ordering in fact (()) personalized interviews. ”
The CWA's additional resources, he says, will help strengthen and expand those efforts. More information is available at CODE's official website, where you can sign up for newsletter and text notifications.
