Hundreds of Video Game Workers Join New Union as Trump Attacks Labor Rights

The video game industry's first direct-join union has grown to roughly 445 members since its launch, amidst industry-wide job losses and an escalating federal crackdown on workers' rights. The United Videogame Workers union, which launched with the Communications Workers of America (CWA), was announced March 19 at the Game Developers Conference. It's an effort on behalf of developers and the CWA to champion unionization efforts without relying on the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), a federal agency that protects worker's rights and working conditions. Their first campaign will focus on industry-wide layoffs; a GDC report released in January found that 11 percent of developers surveyed said they'd been laid off in the year prior. The move comes at a time when the Trump administration has been hostile toward unions, issuing an executive order to end collective bargaining obligations with some federal agencies and firing an NLRB employee, crippling the agency.