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Those for whom a union would not be a benefit are so exceedingly few, but this is the standard anti-union message that has been given out for the last 40 years.

Game devs are hardest hit by bad conditions, but every worker in every company would benefit from collective negotiation -- use your imagination, you could have a much higher salary, more flexibility in your workplace, more autonomy, you name it. That's what unions do, they let you bargain for the things you can't as an individual.

Lamentably, there's still a lot of folks in the software field who see themselves as the rock star, rather than the rank and file.

Also lamentably, there's still a lot of perception that a union means: you can't fire dead weight (you can, you just have to follow a process), pay is based on seniority (doesn't have to be, but what's wrong with that anyway? we don't have a good way to measure productivity or value, so what other metric should we use?), that they're corrupt (they're democratic institutions, so they're as corrupt as the members make them), etc.

All of it anti-union propaganda that's been working pretty well for the last 40 years.



I don't agree - gaming is notorious and specific for it's bad conditions.

People in most tech firms are not clamouring for a union.

When people are talking about it, it's for a reason.

If you make a movie, everyone involved is 'union'.

I don't see why gaming should be any different.


Unions virtually always benefit the worker, the biggest losers if there are some are the community/everyone else.


Yep. It's just frustrating seeing anti-union propaganda repeated, uncritically, unthinkingly, year after year, especially on a forum where people pride themselves on being thoughtful people.

Of course unions can be corrupt, but the only thing more corrupt than a union is management.




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