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Major union launches campaign to organize video game and tech workers

latimes.com

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Re: Major union launches campaign to organize video game and tech workers

#291

Post by unapologetic »

Kalium wrote: post #212
jahaja wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We could always compare unemployment rates in the US to those in France for a straight forward comparison to a European country. Then we could compare full-time employment rates for another straight forward comparison to a European country. Sure, go a head. Historically as well. Furthermore, what kinds of jobs are those actually? What is the quality of the jobs? Do they enable a dignified existence and so on? > The…

I wrote a more detailed response, but I have deleted it, as it was a distraction. Getting into the details of Detroit's economic history or a deep comparison between the US and French economies struck me as perhaps not as helpful as it could be while providing an endless profusion of points for differences of opinion to distract. I hope you'll forgive this editorial decision. Please accept my sincere apologies if I h…

> I hope you'll forgive this editorial decision.

Why would we, you threw out some sketchy claims and then bailed on explaining them.

Re: Major union launches campaign to organize video game and tech workers

#292

Post by dangerboysteve »

slipheen wrote: post #76
dangerboysteve wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

and what were your total union dues during this period ? Because if the union failed to get you a COLA increase then the dues would have put you in the red.

I worked in the video game industry for several years. Being "in the red" over dues wouldn't be on by top-100 list of things to care about. The regularly use worker hostile behavior - Two famous examples are eternal crunch times and laying off entire teams after shipping a game, even after luring them from other companies with promises they wouldn't. Eventually, I left that industry entirely, which was unfortunate. I…

I am not making the argument against unions, perhaps the example provided above. Not all unions are created equal. Unions can be a good thing to enact change and are proven to work in creative fields as Hollywood could attest. That being said, Hollywood seems to take dump on many post production services and VFX which traditionally don't have unions. The nature of the work also allows for the work to be farmed out to companies all over the world.

Re: Major union launches campaign to organize video game and tech workers

#293

Post by AnimalMuppet »

crimsonalucard wrote: post #156
Tiktaalik wrote: post #54

I would strongly consider supporting a video game union, if only to help formalize the things that the good shops do and bring those practices industry wide. Personally I haven't done a day of overtime in seven years and I feel reasonably compensated but there are clearly other places out there that are still exploiting their workers. Improving worker input into production schedules and creating clear guidelines arou…

Don't think that good times are forever. It never hurts to join a union even when things are fair.

That's saying that being in a union is cost-free. I suspect it's not. There's usually dues of some kind, and if you're in a union shop the rules may be less flexible - not just for the company, but for you. And the rules being less flexible for the company may have consequences for you.

That said, insurance costs, too, but most of us have it...

Re: Major union launches campaign to organize video game and tech workers

#294

Post by unapologetic »

friendlybus wrote: post #136
jahaja wrote: post #131

How Americans can be so anti-union by default is really beyond me when looking at the facts at the ground: * A culture of overwork (especially in the game industry). * No vacation. * No parental leave. * No sick leave. * At-will-employment (which inherently causes massive under-reporting of things like sexual harassment in the workplace due to the fear of losing ones livelihood, and please spare me the "actually it's…

Independence. People work hard in video games because it's one of the last indie friendly industries. Unions can crush that in many different ways.

Those people can sign up to carry a wealthy person from place to place and get their independence fix that way.

Re: Major union launches campaign to organize video game and tech workers

#295

Post by reaperducer »

mc32 wrote: post #215
reaperducer wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just going to point out, everywhere, I have ever heard of a union it generally made it harder for new people to come in, not easier My observation has been the opposite. I believe because the unions have an interest in increasing their membership, not letting it atrophy and decrease due to time and deaths. A union that doesn't have a growing membership is a union that will disappear. In fact, some unions I've seen ha…

My experience is that new members subsidize veteran members as junior non-full time pay in but don’t get a lot back.

That applies to pretty much everything in life — The more you put in, the more you get out.

Re: Major union launches campaign to organize video game and tech workers

#296

Post by username90 »

jahaja wrote: post #265
username90 wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Do you think union leaders get a cut of every member's pay or something? Isn't this exactly what happens? You pay the union a percentage of your salary, which is then used to among other things pay union leaders salaries. And just to note, union leaders typically earn a lot more than union members, making this transaction regressive in nature.

Wow, this is a very cynical interpretation of union leaders salaries. The previous posts implies that they are enriching themselves through members dues in a caricature manner.

Can you explain to me why a union leader should earn many times more than the median union worker? Enforcing that they don't earn more than median workers would increase solidarity and be more fair, but as far as I know no unions have such a policy. Why do you think they don't do it?

Re: Major union launches campaign to organize video game and tech workers

#297

Post by unapologetic »

friendlybus wrote: post #183
ianmobbs wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Striking out on their own is the benefit I am talking about. So are you saying we should keep employees overworked and underpaid so they're more likely to leave their current employer...?

I am saying that running your own show or a show with other people you value working with does not need to be under the thumb of union rules or overarching corporate pressure. There is no scenario in entertainment where unions "keep to themselves". A union started will soak up the entire industry and now my show with people I respect, admire and fair equity shares now has time limits and controls none of us decided o…

> I am saying that running your own show or a show with other people

If you're running your own thing then you aren't a worker. You aren't part of the union. Your input on union activities is not valuable, because you are the opposition.

Sorry to be harsh, but that's the truth.

Re: Major union launches campaign to organize video game and tech workers

#298

Post by unapologetic »

friendlybus wrote: post #155

Here is a direct example of unions slowing down the little guy in the entertainment industry: https://youtu.be/LRVwlif6th0?t=171 Niko has to cut costs to make low budget films and the union mandates someone watch the camera feed for the director, completely unnecessarily in the modern era. The film industry is notorious for the boundaries around union and non-union work. Gary Oldman's decline of a role in Star Wars u…

Good on Gary.

"I don't do non-union work" is a perfectly reasonable position to take.

Re: Major union launches campaign to organize video game and tech workers

#299

Post by unapologetic »

username90 wrote: post #178
tomtheelder wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We live at the absolute _extreme_ of capital power over labor power. Unions can certainly do harm, and you are right that they shouldn't be seen as a pure and irreproachable force for good, but small anecdotes about individual bad decisions made by unions are not useful in discussions about this. In fact, they play to the already ridiculously anti-union sentiment that the vast majority of Americans (this article is a…

> We live at the absolute _extreme_ of capital power over labor power. No we don't, that is called slavery.

We still have actual slavery and wage slavery isn't much better.

Re: Major union launches campaign to organize video game and tech workers

#300

Post by RHSeeger »

jahaja wrote: post #131

How Americans can be so anti-union by default is really beyond me when looking at the facts at the ground: * A culture of overwork (especially in the game industry). * No vacation. * No parental leave. * No sick leave. * At-will-employment (which inherently causes massive under-reporting of things like sexual harassment in the workplace due to the fear of losing ones livelihood, and please spare me the "actually it's…

Unions have both positives and negatives. The less your individual situation gets out of the positives, the more the more you see the negatives.
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