The video game industry’s first direct-join union has grown to roughly 445 members since its launch, amidst industry-wide job losses and an escalating federal crackdown on workers’ rights.
The United Videogame Workers union, which launched with the Communications Workers of America (CWA), was announced March 19 at the Game Developers Conference. It’s an effort on behalf of developers and the CWA to champion unionization efforts without relying on the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), a federal agency that protects worker’s rights and working conditions. Their first campaign will focus on industry-wide layoffs; a GDC report released in January found that 11 percent of developers surveyed said they’d been laid off in the year prior.
The move comes at a time when the Trump administration has been hostile toward unions, issuing an executive order to end collective bargaining obligations with some federal agencies and firing an NLRB employee, crippling the agency. Both moves are currently being challenged in court. UVA-CWA does not have the same bargaining power as more traditional unions; it does not require an NLRB election, and lacks the legal obligation on employers to come to the table. As the NLRB stares down a difficult path under the current administration, however, a direct-join union could be a powerful alternative.
“Waiting on winning NLRB certification before workers can join and build power makes no sense in this current moment,” Tom Smith, CWA senior director of organizing, tells WIRED.
Ben Sachs, a professor of labor and industry at Harvard Law School, tells WIRED that workers should expect to have a “far less friendly” situation with the National Labor Relations Board than the one that existed under President Joe Biden. “Relying on the NLRB right now to support union organizing and collective bargaining may be a bad strategy,” he says.
Most gaming unions have been established with the help of the National Labor Relations Board. The first major, US-based union formed in 2022 at Raven Software, after roughly two dozen employees in quality assurance won a historic bid for recognition with an NLRB election. Almost three years later, however, the union has yet to sign its first contract. While others have been able to organize openly and without fear of retaliation, thanks to a labor neutrality agreement from Microsoft—including a unit of over 500 members across multiple departments working on World of Warcraft—all of the aforementioned teams are also still working to secure a contract as well. And now the NLRB is under attack.
In February, President Donald Trump fired NLRB member Gwynne Wilcox, in a move a federal court judge ruled was illegal. The dismissal kneecapped the agency’s ability to function; without at least three of its five board members, the organization cannot reach a majority decision for votes. Although Wilcox has been reinstated, the Trump administration is appealing that decision. “If the president succeeds in removing Gwynne Wilcox, we won't have a functioning NLRB at all,” says Sachs.
Without the NLRB, workers will lose critical support in their efforts to unionize. If won, NLRB-held elections require companies to legally recognize a union; the NLRB also investigates workers rights violations and more, including hearing complaints. But the NLRB’s involvement does not guarantee those companies will bargain in good faith.
While direct-join unions are protected under the National Labor Relations Law, they lack that legal push. Instead, they’re dependent on workers and management coming to an agreement of their own accord. “But given the weakness of federal labor law, it's not obvious how much of a difference that really makes anyway,” Sachs says.
CWA organizers used GDC to drum up excitement and attention about United Videogame Workers last month. After a labor panel held at the conference, speakers and CWA members held an impromptu march through the halls of Moscone West, snaking through the crowds, down three escalators, and out in the Yerba Buena Gardens. They shouted and shook signs. They passed out zines.
“With the tumultuous start of the second Trump Administration, two of the agencies that workers rely on to protect their rights and hold corporations accountable—the Department of Labor (DOL) and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)—are under attack,” reads an op-ed piece in the zine by CODE-CEA senior campaign lead Emma Kinema.
“It’s clear that Trump and the billionaire class he represents are working day and night to dismantle labor laws and put even more power back in the hands of corporations. We can no longer expect to rely on traditional legal frameworks to build worker power and to improve workplace conditions.”
Among the UVW-CWA’s goals, as listed by that zine: drafting a video game worker bill of rights to standardize working conditions, including hiring inequality, crunch, and contractor health care. In theory, this would give organizers a shared vision. “Our struggle does not happen in isolation, and we’ll need all the help we can get in the face of the most anti-worker administrations of our lifetimes,” it reads.
Previous video game unions have formed under specific departments like quality assurance, within a single development team. United Videogame Workers-CWA is open to any game industry worker located in the US and Canada, regardless of where they work or if they are currently employed.
CWA organizers tell WIRED that the direct-join union “was not created in isolation, but rather built off of the global industry-wide organizing” that’s been taking place since 2020’s unionization efforts in the game industry. “The current administration’s dismantling of labor law urges organizers and unions to think about building worker power in different ways,” Kinema tells WIRED.
Union efforts persist in the game industry. On March 21, a supermajority of user research workers at Activision voted for representation and were recognized by parent company Microsoft. On April 1, members of ZeniMax Workers United—a union formed in January 2023 made up of over 300 quality assurance workers—voted to authorize a strike.
“Our quality assurance team is an integral part of our business and is key to our ability to deliver games our players will love,” Microsoft spokesperson Will Beckett told WIRED. Microsoft says it has presented a package proposal that would include immediate compensation increases, among other benefits, and that tentative agreements on most topics have been reached.
With over 400 members, UVW is already a larger collective than some of the previous units that have formed within specific teams.
“What it all comes down to in the direct-join context is: Are there enough workers in the union? Are they committed enough to each other and to the struggle to improve wages and hours and working conditions, that they can compel the employer to bargain,” Sachs says.
“Not as a matter of law, but as a matter of power.”
