The Communications Workers of America (CWA) has announced the formation of an association for all video game industry workers, regardless of the companies they are affiliated with.
The new union is called United Videogame Workers-CWA (UVW-CWA). Unlike most other initiatives in this field, which represent employees from individual studios, the organization operates on the principle of direct membership.
Thus, any developer across the United States and Canada can join it. The union accepts both full-time company employees and freelancers.
UVW-CWA covers virtually all areas related to video game production and publishing: development, design, art, finance, localization, QA, analytics, narrative design, marketing, and many others. The only restriction is on individuals in high managerial positions who can directly influence the hiring and firing of regular employees.
The union plans to fight, among other things, for companies to provide advance notice to employees before layoffs, improve severance packages, expand healthcare for terminated employees, and give workers a voice in decisions related to generative AI.
“Our goal is to create a union to combat the whims of CEOs and vulture investors,” stated UVW-CWA.
In recent years, the CWA has helped organize unions within companies such as Bethesda, Activision, Blizzard, and Sega of America. Now the organization plans to provide support to all industry employees.