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Game Industry Workers Get Voice
Shodan writes "eToychest writes that a new game union of sorts has been formed to both recruit new industry talent, as well as give them a unified voice when it comes to maintaining a work/life balance. PEER (Professional Electronic Entertainment Recruiters) was created to establish and maintain ethical work standards and optimum recruiting service for game industry developers, publishers, and related industry companies." From the article: "The part that catches my eye is 'ethical work standards', which I cannot help but think was established, at least in part, due to all of the fervor surrounding EA and the treatment of its employees. The group seems to be a sort of 'worker's union', as they say that in an era where quality of life and rapid growth are chief concerns, PEER gives its members 'a representative voice.'" It will be interesting to see where this leads.
...the best way to get your job outsourced!
Unions are bred out of necessity, don't get me wrong. They are a great way for truly oppressed workers to force a change for the better. But, the problem is, once they get up a head a steam they become unstoppable juggernauts. Eventually, they run their own business into the ground. They first use their power to lift themselves up to some necessary minimum standards, then they force things, slowly but steadily, more and more in their favor. Until, eventually, they are getting guaranteed easy work at excellent pay from which it's nearly impossible to fire them. With costs so high, The Man to whom they just Stuck It To hemmorhages to death.
With some notable exceptions, game industry workers have it pretty good over all. You hear lots of talk about EA in particular, but nobody ever mentions their nice benefits packages. Last I checked -- this may not be true any more -- salaried professionals there get stock options and bonuses, along with PPO medical coverage (that includes drugs, pretty standard dental, and even a little for vision as well), and respectable paid time off. I worked there five years, and while I was called on to put in long weeks every now and again, those were the exception rather than the rule. Mostly they were 50-hour "crunch" time weeks, with a couple 60-hour ones thrown in, maybe 5-10 weeks out of the year. The rest of the time it was 8x5, with the occasional company-provided beer party starting on a Friday afternoon (during business hours) thrown in to help everybody unwind after meeting a milestone.
The game industry doesn't need a union. We're not the underpaid, overworked, downtrodden masses people want to think we are.
The IGDA website is devoid of any mention of this new group. The International Game Developers Association already has a substantial presence in the industry.
Colonel Cranium this is Rectal Reconnaissance, we are on a collision course sir, Abort Abort!
What it really is, if you read their "charter", is a price-fixing scheme for headhunters. They "agree" that they should get 20% of the first year's salary, payable at hiring time.
There's a real union for game developers - the Animation Guild, local 839, IATSE, AFL-CIO. They represent most of the animation people in Hollywood, and they're organizing game developers who are artists.
Unions are a firm UK tradition ...just like the riots that they often cause. So there are already lots of powerful unions which UK programmers can join.
The BECTU http://www.bectu.org.uk/ are a good one with 25,000 members, mainly media company employees though (which apparently includes Game Development). If they identify more as software engineers than game developers then there are a host of engineering unions who would accept them. Amicus http://www.amicustheunion.org/ are amongst the biggest and already have many thousands (I think) of IT employees as members.
The TUC website http://www.tuc.org.uk/ is probably the best online resource though.