White-collar workers have long resisted unions. A new video game union is changing that | nickbonyhady
Australia’s first union for video game workers will launch on Sunday, opening a fight for higher pay and better conditions in an industry that has faced accusations of gruelling stretches of unpaid shifts in “crunches” leading up to project release dates.
Scandals at major international game companies such as Activision Blizzard have spurred workers to get involved in the labour movement.Though its membership is small by the standards of the labour movement, Unite’s 360-odd members make up between a quarter and a fifth of Australia’s game development industry, which one count put at 1327 people last year.
Mitch McCausland, 33, a producer with Sydney’s Featherweight Games, said even when Unite was a volunteer organisation it had helped him enter the industry by connecting him with peers, and negotiated a contract with a previous employer to ensure it was above industry minimums.
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