SAG-AFTRA Seeks Approval for Second Strike Against Video Game Companies::SAG-AFTRA on Friday called for a strike authorization vote as it prepares to negotiate a new video game contract.
Cool. I hope it gets other areas of the game industry to unionize. They deserve it.
Visual Effects checking in.
Although I hope it doesn’t go the way the rest of the entertainment industry has, where the company colludes with the union leadership and negotiates essentially a freelance gig style of work, where you are just a day-hire and can be dropped off the schedule at a moment’s notice, and have no healthcare coverage or retirement.
Do you like weekends? Thank unions. Do you like sick pay? Thank unions. Do you like overtime pay? Thank unions.
Unions make your job better even if you’re not in one by fighting for your rights as much as theirs. They want your pay to be as good as their pay.
Our union calendars love mentioning that shit, but it’s like me bragging about a second grade vocabulary test. Our union leadership recommended we accept a contract that 80% of the members voted against. I’m not going to get into pension and 401k fuckery, but we can’t just dogmatically say unions are great and cite 100 year old wins. Unions need to work for their dues.
Do you like dead beat workers bringing down your earning potential? - Thank unions! DO you like having your employer not able to provide suitable work for you when injured? -Thank unions! Do you like someone forcing you to fork over a portion of your taxable income? - Thank unions! Do you like people abusing ‘sick time’? - Thank unions!
I know that’s what the work training video tells you, but that is what the businesses want you to think.
Rule of the internet: If you want to know the true answer to a question, confidently post the wrong answer and inevitably someone who knows will reply to correct you.
You’re not entirely wrong. If there is a union, it exists because something bad has happened. People don’t just sit around and go “you know we should organize to protect ourselves from companies”. Companies thoroughly fvck people over then they organize to protect themselves.
Unions are the lesser of two evils between unionization and getting fvcked by companies.
You shouldn’t have to pay a mediating company to exist to make sure you get fair wages vacation and work, but it certainly didn’t come out of nowhere.
Now things are getting interesting
For those like me who have only heard it called SAG, SAG-AFTRA is Screen Actors Guild and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. Since I guess the article assumes everyone knows that already.
For the few pushing back on this, clearly you have no idea how important the power of collective bargaining is. We need class solidarity now more than ever. STRIKE!
Yeah, get them! Take the corporations for everything they’re worth!
