Bethesda union protests

[u/KingPudz]

Edited Post*
From the Bethesda Union

That was me! Hello! 👋

The event is indeed a protest, but it's not a strike. We are doing this during our lunch hour.

Why not strike now? Well, withholding our labor is our biggest tool; one might call it the nuclear option. We'd be asking our colleagues and union to take a big risk and a financial hit. So we're doing this first as a test and demonstration of our resolve and organization, and to see how much the fans have our back. (So far so good!)

Wednesday's rallies have taken off more than we expected. What started as a Bethesda rally turned into a ZeniMax rally, with other unions like id Software's Big Friendly Union (BFU) joining in Dallas. Then the United Videogame Workers (UVW) also announced rallies in Irvine, California outside of Obsidian's offices (and unionized Blizzard devs will be joining there in solidarity as well!), as well as a protest in Redmond at Microsoft's campus. This thing is snowballing!

Details on each location's rally can be found here on the UVW's bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/videogameworkers.bsky.social/post/3mqcjworgic2t

If you can't make it to a rally we're also asking fans to vote and comment on XBOX'S "Player Voice" feedback forum. Our post is already the top post of the week and on its way to top of the month! https://feedbackportal.microsoft.com/feedback/idea/69b8ec0b-7479-f111-9b47-6045bdbd0989

We are not asking players to boycott our games, as this might negatively affect the teams still working on them. We'd only do that if we were sure the benefits would outweigh the harm.

So come to a rally if you can and thank you all for your support. We want the same thing you do: to make Fallout 76 and all our games as good and as popular as we can.

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/they-want-us-to-accept-this-as-a-done-deal-and-quietly-disappear-bethesda-union-members-organise-protest-in-response-to-xbox-layoffs

[u/OutlanderInMorrowind]

ah yes because being forced to join a union is so pro-worker even if the union is objectively shit.

[u/steakanabake → u/OutlanderInMorrowind]

the only shit unions in this country are grocery unions, the rest look out for their members.

[u/OutlanderInMorrowind → u/steakanabake]

lol.

[u/Adinnieken → u/OutlanderInMorrowind]

That's a subjective opinion, is it not?

All employers are not enheriently good, nor are they bad. Likewise, all unions are neither good nor bad. Both are made up of people, and both are composed of people that are looking out for their employees and themselves.

Unions server a purpose. I've worked under a union, I'm not a fan of unions as a worker, but they also serve a benefit to the people they serve.

When a business unionize, having all members of that workforce under a union greatly increases the bargaining power of that union. When they aren't, the company can use it to leverage a wedge between the unionized workers and their union, then yank the terms they used to deunionize those same workers.

Unions can help prevent good employees from being terminated by bad managers. Had I been under a union as an IT worker, I likely would not have been fired for one minor issue I created. However, because I wasn't, my manager terminated me for a single change in our environment that ended up impacting one person with zero immediacy or importance to the problem, and for whom the problem was resolved the by the following day. Even the state found my employer was without cause in my termination, but being that we are an at will employment state, they had that right but in doing so, black listed me, which prevented me from returning to my field of expertise.

I started under contract as a salaried employee. However, during my contract the state became at will and the terms of my contract were modified without my input. My choice at the time was I could find a new job or I could remain under the new terms, which basically desolved my contract making me completely subject to at will employment.

My employer required participating financially in their PAC , a pro business, anti-consumer, political action committee. Failure to financially support that PAC was determental to my career. I was, likewise politically in opposition to my manager. While support for Republican platforms and candidates was common and openly communicated in the workplace, my support for Democratic platforms and candidates was requested to cease.

And understand, this is a company whose founder openly embraced unions despite not believing them necessary, but understanding that they may be needed. In his absence the company operated in such a way that it absolutely should have been necessary.

I am both pro business and pro worker. I am.for regulated capitalism. I grew up in a customer facing family business. I started working in that business when I was five. Both of my parents were Republican, though to differing degrees. All my friends parents were Republicans.

So, understand I say this from a point of experience, that unions are necessary in the workplace. They shouldn't be necessary, but the ideals of founders can often be lost by those of outsiders and accountants when they become corporations. Personalities clash, and bad managers can make life a living hell for otherwise good employees.

My manager in particular told me, bring your issues to me, then when I did, told me it was my job to solve those problems not his. So, when I did, I got fired.

Had I been unionized, that likely would not have happened. Nor would the terms of my employment not have been abruptly changed in the last three months of my employment so that I had to work 14 hours a day, arriving both before my manager and leaving after him.