While different industries of labor has extended its reach to unionizing its workforce from manual labor in construction, white collar work, and even in retail, there is more markets that are opening to trade unions. For the video game industry, we’ve witnessed this desire blossom more and more as firms begin to face supermajority votes from its staffing to support developers. One example is Sega of America which opted in favor for a union.
Additionally, ZeniMax Online Studios also did the same prior to that as well. The most recent press on unionization is the statement from SAG-AFTRA. Last month, the group issued that a strike is imminent for video game voice actors, motion capture actors, and more in the field is on the horizon. While not an immediate strike, at least a discussion is to be the first approach before forming a picket line.
This week, CD Projekt Red staff has formed a new union for the Polish game industry. The announcement follows waves of layoffs at the Cyberpunk 2077 team earlier this summer. CD Projekt Red gameplay programmer Lev Ki and gameplay QA analyst Paweł Myszka are the standing founders of the new Polish Gamedev Workers Union.
We started talking about unionizing after the 2023 wave of layoffs when 9% of Reds (that is roughly 100 people) were let go. This event created a tremendous amount of stress and insecurity, affecting our mental health and leading to the creation of this union in response. Having a union means having more security, transparency, better protection, and a stronger voice in times of crisis.
The above shows how employers tend to view their interests to be in conflict with those of their employees. While employees are the ones creating value in this arrangement, they lack any decision power in company-structure-related matters. That is why we need to organize to enter those situations on equal footing. We believe that the mass lay-offs are a danger to the gamedev industry and we believe that unionizing is a way for us to preserve the industry’s potential.
“We want to build a collective. We want to operate as a support system that actively works to protect employees and holds a strong negotiating position. Right now, we are focusing on grouping Reds to give us a unique, common voice,” the FAQ reads. “Given the significant changes that CD Projekt is undergoing, we want the employees’ voices to be directly heard when making decisions that affect all of us.
“We also want to increase employment stability. Unionization guarantees us the ability to negotiate the terms of mass layoffs as well as in individual cases. [..] We are also currently in what is effectively a trial period, a period in which a Union is being legally established but doesn’t yet have all of its governing bodies in place. This period will end for us in mid-December when we’ll have a large statutory meeting, during which we’ll ultimately root ourselves in our proper position.
“We’ve also established contact with a group of union activists in other game dev companies and we joined forces to cooperate and establish a better industry and job market for all of us.” What has yo most interested in the new union formed by the current CD Projekt Red staff?
Source: Polish Gamedev Workers Union
