Paizo Paizo Workers Unionize

The workers at Paizo, publisher of Pathfinder and Starfinder, have formed the United Paizo Workers union (UPW). The new union speaks of its love for the company, but cites a number of underlying issues including underpay, crunch conditions, and the recent allegations regarding the work environment made by former employee Jessica Price. They also bring up hiring practices, pay inequity, verbal abuse from management, and the covering up of harassment allegations.

The UPW is asking Paizo to recognize the union.

Redmond, WA (October 14th, 2021) — Today, the workers at Paizo, Inc - publisher of the Pathfinder and Starfinder roleplaying games - are announcing their formation of the United Paizo Workers union (UPW), with the Communication Workers of America’s CODE-CWA project. This union is the first of its kind in the tabletop roleplaying games industry.

“Unions have helped build a stronger working class in America and I’m proud to stand with United Paizo Workers. I believe that when we all work together, we’re better for it. Unionization allows workers to have a seat at the table and ensures that our voices and concerns are being heard and addressed so that all of Paizo can move forward for a positive future.” - Shay Snow, Editor

"I love my job. I love my coworkers, and I love the company I work for. I get to sell a game that I love to a community that I love. I come from a pro-union family, and I believe that unionizing Paizo will be the best way to protect the people, company, and community that I love, for now and going forward into the future." - Cosmo Eisele, Sales Manager

“My coworkers are amazing and so are the games we make together. I want Paizo to keep publishing Pathfinder and Starfinder content for years to come. This is my way of helping management improve our company culture, and by extension, the content we produce.” - Jenny Jarzabski, Starfinder Developer

“I proudly stand with my coworkers as we strive to help improve our workplace, and I believe the UPW will amplify our voices and assist with the changes we feel are necessary in making Paizo a more positive space for its employees.” - Logan Harper, Customer Service Representative

Paizo is one of the largest tabletop roleplaying publishers in the world, producing more than 10 hardcover books annually, along with numerous digital adventures and gaming accessories. Paizo also runs some of the most successful living campaigns in tabletop gaming history, with regular players in more than 36 countries. However, despite this success, Paizo’s workers are underpaid for their labor, required to live in one of the most expensive cities in the United States, and subjected to untenable crunch conditions on a regular basis.

Though efforts to organize by the Paizo workforce had already been underway for some time, the sudden departures of several long-standing employees in September and the subsequent allegations of managerial impropriety by former Paizo employees threw into stark relief the imbalance of the employer/employee relationship. These events, as well as internal conversations among Paizo workers, have uncovered a pattern of inconsistent hiring practices, pay inequity across the company, allegations of verbal abuse from executives and management, and allegations of harassment ignored or covered up by those at the top. These findings have further galvanized the need for clearer policies and stronger employee protections to ensure that Paizo staff can feel secure in their employment.

Changes have been promised, internally and externally, by the executive team. However, the only way to ensure that all workers’ voices are heard is collective action. It is in this spirit that the workers of Paizo have united to push for real changes at the company. The UPW is committed to advocating on behalf of all staffers, and invites all eligible Paizo employees to join in the push for better, more sustainable working conditions. The union requests the broad support of the tabletop community in urging Paizo management to voluntarily recognize the United Paizo Workers, and to negotiate in good faith with the union so that both may build a better workplace together.

For more information, please contact the Organizing Committee at committee@unitedpaizoworkers.org

Raychael Allor, Customer Service Representative

Brian Bauman, Software Architect

Logan Bonner, Pathfinder Lead Designer

Robert Brandenburg, Software Developer

James Case, Pathfinder Game Designer

John Compton, Starfinder Senior Developer

Katina Davis, Webstore Coordinator

David "Cosmo" Eisele, Sales Manager

Heather Fantasia, Customer Service Representative

Eleanor Ferron, Pathfinder Developer

Keith Greer, Customer Service Representative

Logan Harper, Customer Service Representative

Sasha "Mika" Hawkins, Sales and E-Commerce Assistant

Jenny Jarzabski, Starfinder Developer

Erik Keith, Software Test Engineer

Mike Kimmel, Organized Play Line Developer

Avi Kool, Senior Editor

Maryssa Lagervall, Web Content Manager

Luis Loza, Pathfinder Developer

Joe Pasini, Starfinder Lead Designer

Austin Phillips, Customer Service Representative

Lee Rucker, Project Coordinator

Sol St. John, Editor

Michael Sayre, Pathfinder Designer

Shay Snow, Editor

Alex Speidel, Organized Play Coordinator

Levi Steadman, Software Test Engineer

Gary Teter, Senior Software Developer

Josh Thornton, Systems Administrator II

Jake Tondro, Senior Developer

Andrew White, Front End Engineering Lead



In Solidarity:

Thurston Hillman, Digital Adventures Developer

 

[Stone Dog]

For any non-USians, unions have been in decline in this country for a very long time. They were always much weaker here than in many other rich countries and only about 10% of workers are members of a union. (Peak was about 30% in the mid-40s.)

We get a lot of anti-union rhetoric in some jobs too. I worked at Office Depot and I think that every year there was a UNIONS BAD refresher. You could replace the work "union" with "corporate" in all of them, though. "I don't want somebody standing between me and my manager" Corporate did that all the time. "We went on strike and nothing got better" Corporate never made things better and nobody was around to keep them from making it worse.

There are weak and corrupt unions, and that certainly needs addressing, but unions overall are sometimes the only real weapons that workers have.

 

[Morrus]

This is starting to drift into a discussion about the concept of unions in general. If it does that, I'll close the thread; this site isn't the place for it. Please keep the topic to this one particular union only. Thanks.

 

[payn]

* To me, the sacred cows of Pathfinder 1 and overbearing oppressive mechanics of Pathfinder 2 are symptoms of a vision of a few charismatic individuals drowning innovation and freedom of modern systems - quite typical result of dominated work environment. I left Pathfinder behind a few years ago, but still hope to return.

Some mental gymnastics going on here.

 

[CleverNickName]

For what it's worth, their union has my support.

 

[ReshiIRE]

Fantastic news; the Paizo forum and the Pathfinder 2e reddit seem quite happy about this, and so am I.

May they succeed. They seem to have about 30 to 40 workers - which is about half the company. May they get more in the coming days to join them, and recognition.

 

[sevenbastard]

If the unionize it will encourage other companies to go contract labor to avoid the same issue.

Also not sure what thier profit margins are but I imagine they are shrinking. Union would cut into that even more. A unionization could be a nail in the coffin.

 

[Dungeonosophy]

Good for them! It takes a huge amount of courage to get together and put their job on the line.
The best thing Paizo can do is to quickly and warmly embrace the UPW, in the utmost of good faith, in a collegial (and even fun!) yet serious and practical way.

 

[Malmuria]

I will say that I am curious as to what the "never trust Jessica Price" people have to say about this development. Because it sure seems that fallout from her twitter thread are what led to this development. I'm not even saying that her thread didn't involve a lot of her own interpretation, but it does seem that there was a push to dismiss all the allegations based on feelings people had about the person posting them.

 

[Ringtail]

The fact that the workers felt they needed to do this, makes all of the allegations against Paizo ring true and all of their promises to make things right suddenly seem hollow.

Best of luck to all the unionizing employees. I hope this all turns out for the best.

 

[ReshiIRE]

If the unionize it will encourage other companies to go contract labor to avoid the same issue.

Also not sure what thier profit margins are but I imagine they are shrinking. Union would cut into that even more. A unionization could be a nail in the coffin.

Why would a union cut into their prof margins (besides raising wages for workers?) I was under the impression unions took fees from workers, not from a company itself.