UK: Game Workers union jumps 50% after lay offs, "It just keeps coming and coming. And with this wave, I’ve seen people saying ‘we need to join unions’". - eviltoast
Video game developers union membership in UK soars after thousands laid off
www.theguardian.com
Around 900 of the estimated 11,100 job losses in the workforce last year were in the UK’s £5bn a year industry
  • rockSlayer@lemmy.world
    11·
    10 months ago

    They say our time is over,

    They say our time is through

    They say you need no union if your collar isn’t blue

    Well that is just another lie the boss is telling you,

    For the union makes us strong!

  • Municipal0379@lemmy.worldEnglish
    7·
    10 months ago

    If IT ever had the balls to unionize companies would be fucked. Want email? You need IT. Want internet? You need IT.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldBEnglish
    4·
    10 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    Mass redundancies in the video game industry, with thousands of developers losing their jobs, have led to a record surge in workers joining unions, organisers have told the Observer.

    In October 2023 alone, membership jumped by 12%, a month after Epic, the developer of Fortnite, announced it was cutting hundreds of jobs as the studio was “spending way more money than we earn”.

    But studios and publishers, both in the UK and around the world, are now making cutbacks to compensate for an underwhelming growth after a pandemic-driven boom for video games failed to continue.

    Globally, those cuts included the gaming giant Electronic Arts (EA), which is behind major series such as Fifa, Battlefield and The Sims.

    The union was first formed five years ago amid growing concerns among video games workers over precarious working conditions, endemic sexism at certain studios and constant excess overtime (a practice known as the “crunch”).

    “It has been difficult to hear of the job losses in the video games sector over the recent few months,” said Ukie co-CEO Daniel Wood.

    The original article contains 572 words, the summary contains 176 words. Saved 69%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

        • Custoslibera@lemmy.world
          81·
          10 months ago

          Unions are responsible for:

          -You not dying when you go to work (OHS laws).

          -The eight hour work day.

          -Weekends.

          -Equal pay for women.

          -The ability for women to work.

          -Minimum wage.

          -Sick leave.

          I bet you think you are smart enough or have skills in demand enough that you could have negotiated all those by yourself.

          You’re wrong. You wouldn’t have been able to individually negotiate shit compared to the actual weekend.

          You’re at best just ignorant of everything you have to be grateful for from the unionists that died to make your working life just that little less sucky or at worst you’re aware and just want your fellow worker to suffer. Either way, shame on you.