Gaming Workers Unite: CWA Launches First Industry-Wide Video Game Union

The Communications Workers of America (CWA) has created a new union called United Videogame Workers (UVW-CWA) for people who make video games in North America and Canada. This is the first industry-wide union of its kind in these regions, launched during the Games Development Conference on March 19.

Unlike traditional unions that form within a single company, UVW-CWA allows any video game worker to join directly, regardless of which studio they work for. Artists, writers, designers, QA testers, programmers, musicians, and even freelancers can all become members. The union has partnered with the American Federation of Musicians (AFM) to include music professionals in the industry.

“Our mission is to take back our lives, our labor, and our passion from those who treat us like replaceable cogs,” states the UVW-CWA in their mission statement. They aim to connect full-time employees with freelancers, contractors, and workers who have recently lost their jobs.

The video game industry has faced serious challenges in recent years. According to GDC’s State of the Games Industry survey, about 10% of respondents reported losing their jobs in 2024. Since early 2023, over 25,000 game industry employees have reportedly been laid off. This ongoing wave of layoffs is the focus of the union’s first campaign, with members gathering signatures on a petition at this year’s Game Developers Conference.

Workers in the gaming industry often earn less than people with similar skills in other fields, despite gaming companies making huge profits. Many developers face extremely long hours during “crunch” periods, job instability, and limited career growth. The UVW-CWA also points to discrimination issues in the workplace.

The union has ambitious plans to create what they call a “video game worker bill of rights” that will set standards for fair hiring practices, reduce reliance on crunch time, provide healthcare for contractors, and protect against various workplace injustices. Beyond fighting for better working conditions inside individual studios, they want to build industry-wide power.

“The creation of this union was not done in isolation; it’s a cumulative effort by the thousands of video game workers who have been fighting for years to redefine what it means to stand together,” said CWA senior director of organizing Tom Smith.

CWA president Claude Cummings Jr. added, “As video game studios have consolidated, the workers whose creativity, dedication, and skill bring the games to life have become more an afterthought. They are subject to endless cycles of layoffs and rehiring as corporate executives pursue short-term profits.”

The CWA has been instrumental in several successful unionization efforts at major game studios in recent years, including at Bethesda Game Studios and Blizzard in 2024. This new industry-wide approach allows them to build worker power across studios, avoiding some of the obstacles employers can create during traditional union certification processes.

Membership dues for the UVW-CWA will be calculated on a sliding scale starting at $15 USD to make the union accessible to workers at different income levels. More information about the union can be found at uvw-cwa.org.