“They never talk about us,” say union protesters fighting back at The Game Awards

Outside the glitzy Hollywood spectacle of The Game Awards, a group of passionate protesters is making a stand. As the great and good of the games industry line up to take their seats in the Peacock Theatre in downtown LA, a great chorus of chants rings over the hubbub. These are members of the United Videogame Workers – Communications Workers of America (UVW-CWA) union, and they’ve had enough.  

These passionate activists are dead set on highlighting the history of layoffs, deflated salaries, and union busting that dog the video games industry. “Let’s start with the 40,000 layoffs that have happened in the last three years,” begins Kaitlin “KB” Bonfiglio, local secretary for UVW-CWA. “We want our union, our power as game workers, to be heard, because they never talk about us at The Game Awards.”

✓ VideoGamer Summary

• VideoGamer chatted to the United Videogame Workers – Communications Workers of America (UVW-CWA) union during its protest outside The Game Awards. 
• UVW-CWA drew attention to the stark contrast between the wealth and opulence on display at The Game Awards and the culture of layoffs that defines the industry experience for so many workers. 
• The Union has ambitious, concrete goals to improve workers’ rights. 
• AI poses a serious threat to workers, which UVW-CWA is keen to tackle head-on.

An embarrassment of riches

For UVW-CWA, The Game Awards is the ideal venue to make their case. “I think The Game Awards have a sense of pomp and circumstance,” explains Bonfiglio. “You know [it costs] a million dollars for a three-minute trailer and seat fillers that cost $500 per seat, for example,” she continues, keen to emphasize the sheer financial force behind the ceremony. 

“[The awards] are representative of a change in this game industry, which is lining executive pockets with money.” Despite her critique of The Game Awards as a whole, Bonfiglio was keen to stress that, for UVW-CWA, the issues are wealth disparity and layoffs, rather than the recognition of industry achievements. 

“I don’t want to discredit any of the game workers who are inside the theatre right now,” she says. “They’re getting nominated for amazing games that they’ve created with their labor,” continues Bonfiglio. “But I do agree that The Game Awards does not represent game workers.”   

A grand plan

While setting up outside The Game Awards certainly drew a lot of attention to UVW-CWA’s struggle, there’s plenty of substance behind the union’s plans, too. Sherveen Uduwana, local treasurer for UVW-CWA, had plenty to say about the organization’s concrete goals. 

“The number one thing that a lot of the workers we’ve talked to have been really, really vocal about is protections against layoffs,” begins Uduwana. This includes protections like the ‘right to recall’. “That means, if you are laid off and they hire back, they can’t just hire some random person,” Uduwana goes on to explain. 

“Ways to prevent mass layoffs, severance packages, ways to prevent people from losing their healthcare; those are all things that we think will make a lot of high-impact changes to make mass layoffs less likely and less profitable.” 

These are ambitious goals. However, UVW-CWA already boasts a significant amount of industry influence that its members can leverage to their advantage. 

“Having a wall-to-wall direct join union for North America and Canada means that we don’t have to wait for a specific studio to unionize [to take action],” describes Uduwana. “We can start doing a lot of the work. We can include people who are often left behind, like freelancers,” he continues. 

“We can also get people who are interested in organizing at their specific studio into our organization, train them up, and give them resources. We’re also partnered with the Communication Workers of America. That is our parent organization, so we have decades of experience organizing.” 

The elephant in the room

Despite boasting decades of experience courtesy of its partnership with the Communication Workers of America (CWA), the UVW-CWA must be forward-thinking if it means to survive. This means locking horns with one of the most pressing concerns in the games industry: AI. 

“It’s very obvious to us as game workers that AI is being implemented from the top down,” explains Anna C Webster, chair of the UVW-CWA Freelancing Committee. 

“It is being used as a cudgel against wage labor and [salaried] labor; they don’t want to have to pay workers what they’re worth,” Webster elaborates. “They don’t want to have to hire as many workers, so they’re like: ‘Oh, let’s get the plagiarism machine to do it.’” 

Webster was keen to point out that AI is often used as a way of framing a pleasing narrative for corporate shareholders, with little consideration for how its implementation affects workers. “A lot of the time, it’s mainly implemented as a way to make a number go up the line,” continues Webster. “It pleases their shareholders. It makes them able to say: ‘Hey, we’re streamlining, it’s going to be more efficient.’ But that isn’t true.”

People power

At this point, Bonfiglio jumps in, emphasizing how UVW-CWA takes the same line as SAG-AFTRA (Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) in an act of solidarity. “The SAG-AFTRA Interactive contract stipulates that workers have control over AI, and that’s our main position. The power is with the worker.”  

This is the crux of what UVW-CWA is trying to achieve, both with its high-profile protests outside The Game Awards and with its long-term policy plan. To look at The Game Awards itself is to see a concentration of power where wealth, opulence, and luxury are the order of the day.  

Those with money, power, and influence call the shots while game workers, though honored in their own way, come and go at the pleasure of these powerful individuals. UVW-CWA aims to put the power back in the hands of workers and creatives by holding CEOs, shareholders, and executive decision-makers to account. It’s high time we help them. 

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