COME TOGETHER
Is it time to add truth to the line that a company’s greatest asset is its people? Christina Logan of the IWGB Game Workers union certainly thinks so
Christina Logan is the vice chair of IWGB Game Workers and the director of Crybaby Studios
How has the unionisation movement within the video game industry evolved in response to the thousands of layoffs over the past two years? Within the UK, our union has grown rapidly, around 50% since the start of last year. We’ve supported workers in multiple companies in negotiations with employers over redundancies, winning enhanced redundancy payments for workers and representing them in individual consultation meetings. These last two years have been a wake up call for game devs in the UK, encouraging them to start talking to their co-workers about our union and taking steps to build unions in their studios.
We hear about successful unionisation efforts in the US, but not so much in the UK. Why is that? A large part of this is due to the difference in employment law between the UK and the US. There are benefits to being a member of a union in the UK which you can access without organising a union in your workplace where a majority of your colleagues are members. This isn’t the case in the US, where the rights we take for granted like representation in grievances or disciplinaries can only be won by building a majority union in your workplace, so there’s a bigger incentive towards organising a union. This is partly also due to the larger size of the industry in the US, and the union neutrality agreement signed with Microsoft. There are a number of workplaces that we’re unionising, so watch this space!
What are the main concerns of UK game workers today and how does the IWGB Game Workers union address these concerns? It’s been a nightmare couple of years for the industry as a whole. Redundancies, pay freezes, mandatory return-
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to-office policies, and the threat of AI are some of the most prevalent issues. The majority of our casework involves representing
and supporting workers facing redundancies. One of the main challenges is how companies interpret the legal process around redundancies, the short time frames involved, and poor communication from management to workers. Our casework team, comprising both the legal team and member volunteers, support their fellow members by explaining the redundancy process, offering advice, assisting with communication with management, and providing moral support. Additionally, our casework team and organisers assist members in campaigning against mandatory return-to-office policies and pay disputes. We help members find one another in the workplace and provide them with the information needed to organise and push back against workplace issues.
What specific protections or changes are you advocating for to help prevent or mitigate the impact of mass layoffs in the industry? It depends on the studio and their financial context. In general, we would like to see employers taking accountability for bad decisions and work with workers in our union to avoid or mitigate the impact of redundancies. Achieving a union recognition agreement in
workplaces would mean game workers in their studio could agree to longer consultation periods on redundancies, having trained union representatives in collective consultations rather than forcing them to go through it alone, often with very little notice and without time to seek legal advice. We find it common for both employees and employers to have very little
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