Wizards of the Coast declines to voluntarily recognize Magic Arena union by May 1st deadline

Wizards of the Coast has not voluntarily recognized a new union being formed by Magic: The Gathering Arena employees. A post on United Wizards of the Coast's webpage states that the company has not voluntarily recognized the union by the May 1st deadline put forth by the union when it announced its attempt to form. Per the post, Wizards has had no contact with union representatives at all, with their only statement about the planned filing being released to media sources instead.

Developers tied to Magic Arena announced last week that they were forming a union, citing a need to protect workers from layoffs, guardrails over generative AI usage and crunch time, and protections for remote work. This union is limited to Magic Arena developers only and does not encompass other areas at Wizards of the Coast.

As Wizards has not chosen to voluntarily recognize the union, the next step would be an election overseen by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), in which all qualifying employees can choose to vote on whether or not to form a union. Per the United Wizards of the Coast's page, the group's voluntary recognition letter contained a super-majority of the Arena team, meaning they would have the votes to create the union as long as their membership holds firm. The union organizers state that they expect the election to be held within the coming weeks.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

But perhaps there should/could be laws to achieve that ?

What, protecting workers from discipline for unethical actions relating to their work??

 

[ECMO3]

This is a union for the people who make Magic Arena, a client for playing the game online. I'm sure that crew includes some people creating graphical elements for the game (who are certainly artists in a sense, but are probably labeled as "graphic designers" or something like that), but when talking about Magic artists one usually refers to the people creating art for the actual cards.

Almost all card art is made by freelancers who, by the nature of being freelancers, aren't covered by any union.

Freelancers certainly can be covered by a Union and I am sure it is the intent of CWA to unionize them as well.

As a matter of fact in many states in the Northeast collective bargaining agreements with employers often require that those employers only hire Union "freelancers" in certain specific jobs.

 

[ECMO3]

2) Your claims that WotC staff artists are "taking others work" are 100% BS.

I am not the one who claimed they were, and I have no idea if they are. That was another poster.

 

[ECMO3]

Being in a union will not protect a worker from discipline resulting from unethical actions like plagiarism or using AI art.

Sure it will. CBAs routinely put in place specific processes and hurdles companies have to go through to discipline and especially fire workers. This protects workers from exploitation and arbitrary disciplinary actions but it also makes disciplining those workers for legitimate ethical or even illegal reasons more difficult. In fact unions not only put processes in place, some of them will go as far as to provide legal representation to union members accused of criminal acts. Without the union these bad actors could just be fired.

Look at what happened at Volkswagon 10 years ago with the engines on Diesel vehicles that were programmed to fake emissions compliance. These cars spewed out 100 times the allowable pollutants. The company was fined Billions of dollars (not enough, but they were fined), top executives went to prison for fraud, even though some they claimed to not know about it. You know who got off scott free? The engineers who purposefully programmed the vehicles to cheat on the emissions test. Do you know why they got off? They were represented by a Union.

And that is just the union workers, before you consider the corruption that is regularly documented by Union leaders.

 

[bedir than]

I am not the one who claimed they were, and I have no idea if they are. That was another poster.

but you repeated this obviously false claim
That's why people are quoting you.

 

[Umbran]

I think it comes across as out-of-touch to me because . . . who reads that and believes it?

As part of work, people often do things they know will be ineffective.

Is your doctor "out of touch" for telling you that you have to watch what you eat, even though they know you won't?

Yes, I know, the doctor at least knows they are trying to help you, but the point is that we often do things for work that we know will be ineffective.

 

[ECMO3]

and everything else the union has gotten for everyone ever since it became legal in CA to opt out of the union and not pay into it while benefiting from it.

IMO it should be illegal to force someone to pay union dues. It is great that all the workers are benefitting, but that should not be an excuse to take someone's money out of their pay check against their will. They should not be forced to pay for something they don't want to pay for, whether it benefits them or not.

It should be up to the individual worker if the value proposition the union affords is worth spending the money. In this respect the union needs to "sell" the reason for workers to pay dues and if workers don't want to do that it tells you all you need to know about the value of joining the union from their perspective.

 

[Dire Bare]

Sure it will. CBAs routinely put in place specific processes and hurdles companies have to go through to discipline and especially fire workers. This protects workers from exploitation and arbitrary disciplinary actions but it also makes disciplining those workers for legitimate ethical or even illegal reasons more difficult. In fact unions not only put processes in place, some of them will go as far as to provide legal representation to union members accused of criminal acts. Without the union these bad actors could just be fired.

Look at what happened at Volkswagon 10 years ago with the engines on Diesel vehicles that were programmed to fake emissions compliance. These cars spewed out 100 times the allowable pollutants. The company was fined Billions of dollars (not enough, but they were fined), top executives went to prison for fraud, even though some they claimed to not know about it. You know who got off scott free? The engineers who purposefully programmed the vehicles to cheat on the emissions test. Do you know why they got off? They were represented by a Union.

And that is just the union workers, before you consider the corruption that is regularly documented by Union leaders.

Nope.

I mean, can unions make mistakes? Yes. Can unions become corrupt? Yes. As can any organization comprised of human beings.

But on the balance, nope.

Unions strive to make sure their workers are treated fairly, that they are given due process when accused of doing something wrong. So, a supervisor can't just say "you plagiarized" and fire somebody . . . they have to document it, make sure they are giving the worker a chance to defend themselves, offer training and a chance to improve. But if the worker clearly stepped over the line, or has established a pattern of doing so, the union isn't going to protect them.

It's fairness, it's due process. It's not the union stubbornly getting in the way of firing bad workers.

Does it create more work for supervisors who feel they need to discipline or terminate a worker? Yes. Cry me a river. You sound like management.

I'll take a potentially corrupt union over a definitely corrupt corporation every day.

 

[Dire Bare]

Freelancers certainly can be covered by a Union and I am sure it is the intent of CWA to unionize them as well.

As a matter of fact in many states in the Northeast collective bargaining agreements with employers often require that those employers only hire Union "freelancers" in certain specific jobs.

I am 100% okay if all WotC staff and freelancers eventually join the union.

 

[Dire Bare]

But perhaps there should/could be laws to achieve that ?

Huh?

If you are asking about worker protection laws . . . we have them in the US, but they are pretty weak. It's part of the reason why we need unions. Heck, even in Europe where worker protections are stronger, workers still need unions.