Workers seek to alter the balance of power in Canadian video game industry
Video game workers in Quebec, under the Game Workers Unite Montreal banner, are partnering with Canadian trade union Confédération des syndicats nationaux (CSN) in an effort to shape the industry for the better. Together, they’re launching a union drive to form a provincewide union for Quebec-based video game workers. Quebec is home to nearly 15,000 workers, according to GWU Montreal, at studios like Behaviour Interactive, Ubisoft, Warner Bros. Games, Electronic Arts, and Gameloft, making it a hotbed for the industry and its workers.
Together, they’re hoping to make not just one or two studios a better place to work — but all of them. “The general public loves games and consumes them on a daily basis, but has no idea how games are made, or by who,” Marie, a game writer, told Polygon. (Marie requested to be identified by their first name only because their employer doesn’t know that they’re organizing.) “It’s an opportunity for us to take that fight, that work we’ve been doing for years, to a larger platform.”
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Game Workers Unite has operated for years as a democratic workers’ organization, but was not itself a union. Now that’s changing: Under CSN, Game Workers Unite Montreal members (which span all of Quebec, not just Montreal) will have access to many more resources. Workers will join individual unions tied to studios, each of which will negotiate with their own employers, CSN president Caroline Senneville told Polygon.
“This structure will ensure the development of solidarity between studios, sharing of collective knowledge, and collaboration around common issues,” Senneville said. “Union members will be able to collectively decide on which demands rally around, all while guaranteeing autonomy to its local components. A province-wide union gives a greater balance of power to the workers as they form a bigger group. This will benefit all, but especially small studios.”
There’s a lot to love about the video game industry, according to Marie — it’s a young,
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