#unionization

#unionization

The union is great, don't get me wrong, but one side effect of having it is that there are massive, sometimes arbitrary and annoyingly vague, lines around what I can and cannot do in my role. This wouldn't necessarily be a problem, if most of the time the things I'm not allowed to do are required to be done by managers. Managers who are overworked, undertrained, and underpaid, and so don't have the time or brain space to address things I bring to them.

At a time when layoffs are hitting our industry hard, today is another big step in building a better future for video game workers at every level,

For the first couple of days, some of us were either crying during the notification, some of us are trying to figure out what our next moves are, are we trying to apply to new jobs. What are our options?

On December 22, Ubisoft Halifax announced that 61 of its workers had joined the Game & Media Workers Guild of Canada. At the time, the studio's lead programmer, Jon Huffman, told CTV News that 73.8 percent of employees voted in favor of unionizing. Ominously in hindsight, he had described the decision as a "huge relief." The studio was working on mobile titles within the Rainbow Six and Assassin's Creed franchises.

Recent developments suggest that the labor movement is starting to take a more active and adversarial approach toward AI in the workplace, This was hardly an isolated incident amid the breakneck integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into the workplace. Ominous signs abound, from the news editor at a nonprofit news site who used AI to edit stories and then fired a reporter for raising objections, to Salesforce's cutting 4,000 customer support jobs and shifting to AI agents.

TriMet has promoted the Safety Response Team (SRT) program as a model of a public safety program that doesn't rely on armed police and security guards. The program sends unarmed workers onto Portland's public transit system, expecting them to help de-escalate tense situations and increase an overall perception of safety on MAX trains and buses. Many of Segler's colleagues have expressed similar sentiments about their jobs.

Heine Bros Coffee has promoted longtime finance and operations leader Jessica Lord to chief executive officer, marking a generational leadership shift at the Louisville-based specialty coffee chain. Lord joined the company in 2010, serving as director of finance before taking on the COO role in 2022. As CEO, she replaces Mike Mays, who will remain with the company in a founder role.

For this data cycle, MMF expanded the reach of the survey as well as the questions. When looking at workplace culture, for example, respondents were asked about the impact of their job on their health. Altogether, 3,100 staff members representing 91 institutions answered the survey, up from the 1,933 staff members at just over 50 museums who took part in the previous report in 2023.

The employees worry that any jobs lost as a result of the purchase would "be a choice, not a necessity, made to pad investors' pockets."

Bad news, baby. The New Yorker reports the rapid advance of AI in the workplace will create a permanent underclass of everyone not already hitched to the AI train. The prediction comes from OpenAI employee Leopold Aschenbrenner, who claims AI will reach or exceed human capacity by 2027. Once it develops capacity to innovate, AI superintelligence will supersede even a need for its own programmers and then wipe out the jobs done by everyone else.

historic agreement between workers and business that only California could deliver.

Developers at independent studio ZA/UM, the team behind the critically acclaimed RPG Disco Elysium, have formed a union that was recognized by the United Kingdom's games industry, marking a first in the country. In an October 2 blog post on the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain (IWGB) Game Workers website, chairperson Spring McParlin-Jones and organizing officer Eugenia Peruzzo expressed excitement about this development. It's a big deal, after all, particularly because ZA/UM's recognized union could provide hope for other developers in the UK looking to gain collective power.

The union campaign began in March when Gulino contacted organizers with United Food and Commercial Workers Local 324, which represents Disney theme park retail workers. An Anaheim Resort district minimum wage law also served as a catalyst. After a lengthy court battle, the Walt Disney Co. began complying with the law two years ago and agreed to a $233-million settlement in the class-action case that an Orange County judge recently approved. The measure covers not only theme park workers, but also Downtown Disney retailers.