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Disco Elysium and the need for collective action

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Re: Disco Elysium and the need for collective action

#12

This article takes a story about some creators getting screwed out of their company by a crooked CEO and makes it about unions. Whether or not creative artists should unionize (I'm generally anti-union but the game industry working conditions seemed so screwed up I think it's needed) this wasn't a dispute between employees and owners, but a dispute between two owners. One of which was a sophisticated unethical CEO an…

You're anti union except for when conditions are bad for workers?

Are you against business owners coordinating too?

Re: Disco Elysium and the need for collective action

#13

This article takes a story about some creators getting screwed out of their company by a crooked CEO and makes it about unions. Whether or not creative artists should unionize (I'm generally anti-union but the game industry working conditions seemed so screwed up I think it's needed) this wasn't a dispute between employees and owners, but a dispute between two owners. One of which was a sophisticated unethical CEO an…

You're anti union except for when conditions are bad for workers? Are you against business owners coordinating too?

Those things don't conflict at all, or at least don't seem to - what are you getting at? Could you state your point more directly?

Re: Disco Elysium and the need for collective action

#14

For those who might not know, this story is a lot more complicated than “evil CEO steals IP from game creators”, even though that’s the short version that gets shared around a lot because it sounds infuriating. I highly recommend this documentary about the whole tale from People Make Games, it’s 2 and half hours long and I enjoyed every minute of it despite not really even being into video games! https://youtu.be/JGI…

The article does mention the excellent People Make Games documentary, though is somewhat dismissive of it. And of course, it could be true both that Kurvitz is an asshole who was very hard on his coworkers and that he was robbed.

Re: Disco Elysium and the need for collective action

#15

This article takes a story about some creators getting screwed out of their company by a crooked CEO and makes it about unions. Whether or not creative artists should unionize (I'm generally anti-union but the game industry working conditions seemed so screwed up I think it's needed) this wasn't a dispute between employees and owners, but a dispute between two owners. One of which was a sophisticated unethical CEO an…

Why are you anti-union if I can ask?

Re: Disco Elysium and the need for collective action

#16
Everyone who wants to do a startup should thoroughly read and comprehend the Disco Elysium situation. This is why so much money goes to lawyers and why contracts should be written to have zero trust in your business partners even if you do have it.

Most people are fairly reasonable, but all it takes is something such as an unexpected divorce to completely unravel someone's decision-making to where they will suddenly be justifying any and all actions to take control and extract money for the good of their future self.

Re: Disco Elysium and the need for collective action

#17

This article takes a story about some creators getting screwed out of their company by a crooked CEO and makes it about unions. Whether or not creative artists should unionize (I'm generally anti-union but the game industry working conditions seemed so screwed up I think it's needed) this wasn't a dispute between employees and owners, but a dispute between two owners. One of which was a sophisticated unethical CEO an…

You're anti union except for when conditions are bad for workers? Are you against business owners coordinating too?

I, for one, think that mission-oriented organizations should be more willing to admit that they're done and disband rather than endlessly expanding. In the case of unions, there is an adversarial party, so it is possible that gains could eventually be clawed back, but large, long-standing unions (like other organizations) do have a tendency towards bureaucratic bloat that might make someone take a position that resembles "I support the unions we don't have but not the ones we do".

Re: Disco Elysium and the need for collective action

#18

This article takes a story about some creators getting screwed out of their company by a crooked CEO and makes it about unions. Whether or not creative artists should unionize (I'm generally anti-union but the game industry working conditions seemed so screwed up I think it's needed) this wasn't a dispute between employees and owners, but a dispute between two owners. One of which was a sophisticated unethical CEO an…

You're anti union except for when conditions are bad for workers? Are you against business owners coordinating too?

Unless you need a union, you don't want a union. They are at risk to fill up with toadies that line their own pockets and screw over the workers they're actually supposed to be fighting for (by colluding with shop management on contracts). It doesn't always happen, but it can and does in some industries (private security and boilermakers unions are known to be pretty egregious in the Midwest US). When this sort of corruption happens it's very difficult to dislodge and actually makes things worse for the workers.

There's actually a plot point in Disco Elysium about this exact problem - when you're talking to wheeling dealing Evrart Claire. Look at his character portrait closely - he was drawn to look like a grinning fat toad.

Re: Disco Elysium and the need for collective action

#19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're anti union except for when conditions are bad for workers? Are you against business owners coordinating too?

Those things don't conflict at all, or at least don't seem to - what are you getting at? Could you state your point more directly?

No thanks

Re: Disco Elysium and the need for collective action

#20

This article takes a story about some creators getting screwed out of their company by a crooked CEO and makes it about unions. Whether or not creative artists should unionize (I'm generally anti-union but the game industry working conditions seemed so screwed up I think it's needed) this wasn't a dispute between employees and owners, but a dispute between two owners. One of which was a sophisticated unethical CEO an…

You're anti union except for when conditions are bad for workers? Are you against business owners coordinating too?

the problem is the adversarial relationship between employers and employees.

what we really need to do is to change that relationship. unions can't help with that. instead a completely different model to run a business is needed, like for example worker cooperatives.

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