This is a good thing
Is this the same Union that demanded "Lactation protection"? Because it sounds like the selfish lovechild of a bunch of HR idiots who are demanding more for doing less work.Unions exist to mediate between employee and Business in a way that allows collective bargining. I don't see how a Union of 20 HR karens is an improvement for people doing the actual hard work of the game.If I recall this was formed due to the termination of 16 QA contracts, which again is routine in the Game Development world and would be very contrary to the way a studio actually works.Are we really whining and harping about the few select privileges of non-development staff at a dame development studio? It would be like making a Union for the warehouse lead by the 5 staff in the small office.
Unions served a good purpose back in the day, but eventually became just another route for power-hungry people to control others. Employees need more legal protection/rights, not union bosses taking dues.
I see this is more of they feel like they have to do to likely backlash within the video game community, then they want to. We know Microsoft has busted union attempts in the past and also "dismissed" people who unionized. The Internet never forgets.
So for the record lactation protection likely pertains to something that is already something that they should have. The ability to have a safe place away from prying eyes to pump breast milk. If they are still having to fight for something like that then acti-blizz needs to do better. I equate everything with smoke breaks. I don’t smoke but I’ve had coworkers who did and they would literally stop work for 15 minutes every hour just to go smoke. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. Pumping is no different then smoke breaks.
I 100% support this union and all unions. People literally died to secure an eight hour workweek and fair wages.
Huge W!
Suuure they will. Over the course of the next two years, every employee that's a part of it will leave the company under unrelated circumstances.
i mean this isn't the place to debate the voracity of unionizing. Microsoft is there to take out the trash and make the brand something people respect again, so this is their default answer, Opposing it would be brand suicide. We'll see if this union actually does anything.
I agree that workers in easily-replaceable jobs need job protection, and that they have little leverage individually when they try to negotiate with the company. They need to unionize to increase their collective leverages.The idea is not wrong.It's the execution that goes wrong most of the time, by selecting a bad leader. Not because the employees made the wrong choice, but because there are very few people who are able -- and willing -- to be on the side of the table that has little resources, and try to win against big corporations and their vast resources.
To me only 2 things matter:1. Game is unaffected / changed by Union decisions2. Political or Social bull!@#$ being shoved into games for whatever reason unless there is a valid game or lore reason. If there isn't, it shouldn't exist. Looking at you fruitbowl.Outside of that, unions are generally good, as long as workers get what they need and not just want. Hopefully whatever happens it unscrews the mess Blizz has been in for years