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Re:Activision-Blizzard layoffs after reporting record results by Cthulhu_ on Wednesday February 13, 2019 @10:16AM (#19153663)
Right now for software development as a whole, unionization isn't necessary - we (if I'm allowed to speak for others) aren't exploited, forced to work 80+ hours / week, underpaid, etc. Generally speaking.

Game development however is a whole different ball game. The problem with game development is that there's a TON of people that would love to do it (because they love games), which makes for an easily exploitable labor force. Don't want to work 80 hours / week? Fine, everyone else does, and there's ten others that would love your job.

Of course, this is about the US which is also lacking in basic employee protection laws. The US is teeming with active cases of slavery (prison workers, unpaid overtime, sub-minimum wage payment to be stipended with tips, easy to fire people at very short notice without any compensation, etc), and no unions are around anymore to stand up for it - because companies can afford to fire anyone trying to, and there's plenty of desperate people to fill in the ranks. Free market.

Re:Activision-Blizzard layoffs after reporting record results by notSupplied on Wednesday February 13, 2019 @12:52PM (#19154957)
Yeah you can't have a conversation about unions without also mentioning the state of labor laws in the US, which are far behind those in of the EU.

The things that I believe in: minimum wage, overtime pay for anyone below a director-level salary, healthcare benefits if working more than X hours per week, are all accomplishable legislatively, as have been done in Europe. Doing so has the added benefit helping every industry at once, not just the ones organized enough to unionize.

There are also things I DON'T want: Unions fighting for job security of the lowest performers, making it nearly impossible to fire for incompetence or conduct layoff when the business struggling. I believe employment should compensate fairly...but fundamentally at-will. I'm also not a fan of the element of coercion in American unions--that if sufficient people unionize in your company, your employer will become union exclusive and you MUST join the union or leave your job.