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It’s no secret that Silicon Valley companies don’t support their workers unionizing, but employees have been pushing back recently. After the civil unrest last summer following the death of George Floyd, employees across the nation have been calling on their leadership to make actionable changes on the front of diversity, equity and inclusion. By definition, labor unions are organized associations of workers, often in specific trades, companies or professions, formed to protect and further their rights and interests from pay to benefits, working conditions and beyond. Unions are especially unusual for big tech companies. However, after years of confrontation between management and workers, more than 400 engineers and other personnel at Google recently unionized to apply pressure on their leadership, according to The New York Times. That may seem like a big union to you but to put the numbers into perspective, the internet giant employs more than 260,000 full timers. The Alphabet...
For the first time ever, video game workers in the U.K. are getting the chance to unionize with the help of the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain (IWGB). “The game workers’ decision to unionize with the IWGB should be a wake-up call for the UK’s gaming industry,” IWGB General Secretary Jason Moyer-Lee said in a press release. As one of the fastest growing industries in the U.K., video games are taking a toll on employees who work long hours with unpaid overtime, commonly referred to as “crunching.” Workers have been reported to work as much as 100 hours a week in an effort to meet demand and deadlines for projects. The union is also targeting zero-hours contracts, which do not guarantee employees a minimum amount of hours to work each week. These use-as-needed contracts can negatively impact workers’ pay and are often used among quality assurance testers. “For as long as I can remember it has been considered normal for games workers to endure zero-hours contracts, excessive...