A Four Day Work Week And More Job Security: What The Workers Behind America's First Game Union Are Fighting For

thegamer.com:

Last month, Myriame Lachapelle’s small studio, Vodeo Games, made gaming history: its staff formed the first game worker’s union in North America. With help from the Communications Workers of America (CWA), the staff at Vodeo now have greater bargaining power than most of their industry peers.

“I love the game industry, even though sometimes I hate it,” Lachapelle tells me. “I've been in the industry for many, many years now. And every time I get people at school asking me ‘should I really do this’?...I don't want to discourage people. Like yeah, the industry is bad, but it's changing, and it's changing for the best.”

Related: "Change Will Not Come From The Goodness Of CEO's Hearts", Unions Blast Abusive Conditions In The Gaming Industry

Workers at Vodeo now have a say in how their workplace is run. They can come together and call for changes to pay and work hours. They can have legal representation assist them with any disputes. Through collective bargaining agreements, they’re now better protected against unjust dismissals or working environments, as we see so often in the gaming industry.

As groundbreaking as it is, forming a union sounds like a natural decision for the team. “It was kind of like a no-brainer,” Lachapelle says. “If we want what’s best to happen, we need to have a seat at the table.”

“I definitely had bad workplaces in the past. But I've always been at least lucky personally to have coworkers that I can trust.”

One of those co-workers, Carolyn Jong, agrees that having that kind of support has made a difference to how it feels to work as a game dev.

“Even that process of talking to each other and building solidarity as workers has already helped me feel more secure in my job,” Jong says. “[It feels] more