Paizo Paizo Recognizes Union!

The ‘will they, won’t they?’ conjecture around whether or not Paizo would voluntarily recognise the new United Paizo Workers union was mercifully short. Paizo today announced that it would work with the union to improve working conditions at the company.

United Paizo Workers consists of more than 30 employees, and was formed to address allegations of pay inequity, verbal abuse, and poor working conditions.

This also means that the group of 40 or so freelancers who ceased work for the company will likely return to work now that their demand that Paizo recognize the union has been met.

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...

www.enworld.org

Paizo - Paizo Freelancers Support Union

Jason Tondro, senior developer for Pathfinder and Starfinder, has indicated that a large swathe of Paizo freelancers have stopped work in support of the recently formed union by Paizo employees. Initially the freelance group had a range of demands, but in light of the new union, they have put...

www.enworld.org

October 21, 2021 (Redmond, WA) - Paizo is pleased to announce it has voluntarily recognized the United Paizo Workers union, which is affiliated with the Communications Workers of America (CWA). “We look forward to working with the union to continue and expand our efforts to make Paizo a better place to work and to ensure that Pathfinder and Starfinder products continue to exceed gamer expectations for many years to come,” said Jeff Alvarez, President of Paizo. The next steps will involve the United Paizo Workers (UPW) union electing their bargaining representatives and then meeting with Paizo management to negotiate terms for a collective bargaining agreement. We expect this process to take some time, but we are committed to the effort and hope to settle a contract in due course. Until an agreement is reached, the Paizo staff continues to focus on creating amazing Pathfinder and Starfinder products. Paizo has always been about creating awesome games, and we look forward to the changes that unionization will bring to the company. Please join us on this journey by following the UPW on Twitter and stay tuned for future updates!

 

[Nilbog]

The amount of fawning praise Paizo is getting on Twitter for doing the bare minimum is astounding.

I mean it seems like working conditions at Paizo weren't great (just how bad we can't be certain) and yeah they may have been backed into a corner somewhat, but they do seem to be reacting in as good a way as possible, while as mentioned above many companies wouldn't. So I guess as much as they deserved criticism for the initial issues they deserve praise for the response.
Time will tell if they genuinely mean it or if it's a token effort.
Hopefully if sales go up they'll realise being ethical is the best way forward and it's a win for everyone.

 

[mach1.9pants]

As a non USA type, this isn't even news. Company recognises Union, yeah that's a legal requirement in the civilised world!

 

[Guest 7025638]

As a non USA type, this isn't even news. Company recognises Union, yeah that's a legal requirement in the civilised world!

That’s right, this really should be like “let’s move on, there’s nothing to see here”.

 

[The White Sorcerer]

The Union was recognized? Props go to the Union. If things actually improve at Paizo? Again, the Union will get my praise, not the company. Any good that results from labor struggle is the achievement of the laborers, not the bosses.

 

[glass]

As a non USA type, this isn't even news. Company recognises Union, yeah that's a legal requirement in the civilised world!

AIUI (IANAL, or an american), it is a legal requirement in the USA too, eventually. But they can "voluntarily" accept it right away, or decline to do that and make the union force their hand. The stereotypical american company does the latter; Paizo did the former.

That’s right, this really should be like “let’s move on, there’s nothing to see here”.

It should be, but in the world we actually live in it is still good news.

The Union was recognized? Props go to the Union. If things actually improve at Paizo? Again, the Union will get my praise, not the company. Any good that results from labor struggle is the achievement of the laborers, not the bosses.

Paizo management have acted better than expected, which admittedly is a pretty low bar.

_
glass.

 

[MGibster]

As a non USA type, this isn't even news. Company recognises Union, yeah that's a legal requirement in the civilised world!

It's a legal requirement in the United States as well. However, Paizo recognized the union before they were legally required to do so. i.e. Before the National Labor Relations Board conducted a secret ballot election giving the workers an opportunity to vote yes or no on the union. In cases where you hear a US company doesn't recognize a union, it's because the formal vote hasn't happened yet. And in cases of larger companies, such as Walmart, they can afford to shut down an entire store if it seems likely the workers will vote yes. In the case of Amazon, the last time they had a vote at one of their locations the workers voted no.

 

[FoolishFrost]

I want to just point out something tangent to this.

If people/companies admit to mistakes, or do the right thing after, and we either figuratively shoot them in the face/mock them for doing the bare minimum…

That‘s NOT going to encourage the behavior we want.

Companies and corporations are made of people. Not actually people themselves. There will always be good and bad people in them, yes. The majority of them just are not really either, and are just trying to get by.

Not saying we should not take the bad to task for being bad, but let them have the good too.

 

[callinostros]

I am sadly amused by all the people downplaying the fact Paizo recognized the Union. What more did people want? If they didn't recognize the union, people would be upset. If they do recognize the union, people are upset. There is this maxim that you applaud the actions you want to see, heck it's an old technique for DMs to use on their players. Applaud them for recognizing the union...then hold them accountable.

 

[Staffan]

I am sadly amused by all the people downplaying the fact Paizo recognized the Union. What more did people want? If they didn't recognize the union, people would be upset. If they do recognize the union, people are upset. There is this maxim that you applaud the actions you want to see, heck it's an old technique for DMs to use on their players. Applaud them for recognizing the union...then hold them accountable.

Recognizing the union is a great first step, and should be rewarded (I'm gonna get me some PDFs on Monday when my paycheck comes in). But after that, the difficult part begins, with negotiating a collective bargaining agreement and seeing how they handle the concrete grievances.

 

[The White Sorcerer]

If they do recognize the union, people are upset.

I'm not upset at Paizo for recognizing the union. I'm upset at the disproportionate response. Recognizing the union was a good thing, yes. But I'm not going to applaud them for it just yet. And I'm certainly not going to even consider becoming a customer until things actually improve.