Game developers launch North America’s first industry-wide union ‘to build worker power irrespective of studio and current job status’

Videogame workers throughout North America have launched a new union as part of the Communications Workers of America called “United Videogame Workers—CWA,” a “direct-join organization” that enables “artists, writers, designers, QA testers, programmers, freelancers and beyond to build worker power irrespective of studio and current job status.”

UVW-CWA said in its announcement that the union’s mission is “to not only build community and solidarity amongst videogame workers, but also to build large-scale education campaigns about labor organizing in the videogame industry.” Its initial focus will be on layoffs: The union said one in 10 game developers were laid off in 2024, which came on top of a comparably catastrophic 2023.

“Job instability looms over us all, as corporate greed drives mass layoffs, studio closures, and the scorched-earth acquisitions of our workplaces,” UVW-CWA said in a publication released alongside the union’s announcement. “Meanwhile, AI threatens to devalue our skills and erase our labor, with executives rushing to replace us with tools built on the very work they exploit. We are left scrambling for stability, overworked in endless crunch, and strung along by promises that never materialize.”

The announcement of the union is timed to coincide with the 2025 Game Developers Conference, which is currently underway. UVW-CWA is holding a GDC panel entitled Videogame Labor at a Crossroads: New Pathways to Industry-Wide Organizing, and will also be sharing a petition to gain support for the unionization effort.

The CWA has previously helped organize unions at individual game studios including Raven Software, Activision, and Bethesda, but the new UVW-CWA union is open to developers of all stripes, regardless of where they work (as long as it’s in Canada or the US) or whether their individual workplace is already organized or in the process of doing so.

That said, “We wholeheartedly encourage and support people who want to unionize their workplace,” UVW-CWA wrote. “But sometimes people have trouble unionizing their workplace, or are a contractor/freelancer, or get laid off from the place they were organizing, or just don’t even know who else to talk to at their company. UVW-CWA exists for us to support each other while we push for industry-wide changes.”

More information on UVW-CWA and its mission can be found at uvw-cwa.org.