Paris Marx is joined by Taylor Welling and Kathryn Friesen to discuss how they formed wall-to-wall unions in the video game industry and their thoughts on broader challenges like layoffs and corporate consolidation.
Taylor Welling is a producer and union member at OneBGS and Kathryn Friesen is quest designer and member of the World of Warcraft GameMakers Guild.
Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon ( / techwontsaveus ) .
The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.
Also mentioned in this episode:
• OneBGS (www.gamesindus...) and the World of Warcraft GameMakers Guild (www.theverge.c...) each won their union votes in July 2024.
• More video game workers have already been laid off (www.polygon.co...) in 2024 than did in all of 2023.
• Microsoft and the Communication Workers of America signed a labor neutrality agreement (www.gamesindus...) in 2022, to take effect 60 days after its acquisition of Activision Blizzard closed. In May, that agreement was extended (www.engadget.c...) to ZeniMax Studios.
• Microsoft laid off 1,900 gaming workers (www.theverge.c...) in January and closed four internal studios (www.pcgamer.co...) in May.
• Blizzard provides (www.wowhead.co...) swords, shields, and helmets to employees celebrating 5, 10, and 20 years at the company.
• The ZeniMax Workers Union struck an agreement (www.gamesindus...) with their employer on the use of AI.
• Nicole Carpenter at Polygon put together a list of video game unions (www.polygon.co...) and an explainer on the rise of video game unions (www.polygon.co...) .
• Communication Workers of America has more information on unionizing as part of their CODE-CWA campaign (code-cwa.org) .
Support the show ( / techwontsaveus )
21 сен 2024
