Unions are a good idea in theory. But, many laws in the US compel the companies to recognize them and to negotiate with them, and compel people to join the unions if they want to work at the companies that are unionized. I only support unions if they are voluntary all the way around.

Workers should be able to join (or not) any organizations they want, and employers should be able to tell those organizations to fuck off if they want to (or not).

Aren't unions supposed to be a tool to tell employers to fuck off? Kinda defeats the purpose if unions can only exist at the mercy of employers?

Solidarity is always a difficult subject and unions have their own power struggles. Yet the industry has only bought it upon themselves. All those promises for many many years to do better still haven't come to much.

I support all voluntary association, and I don't support any forced association.  Unions have much power without laws giving them special privileges, largely because of the fact that companies generally don't want to fire a big portion of their workforce.  

As a union member who has also worked non union, no not at all.  This is a narrative that companies brainwash you with that just is not true.  Having said that, just like there are good companies out there, there are also bad unions.  But nothing is black and white.

I mean, in my experience unions are good overall.  So yes it is FAR better than with Kotick.

Kotick is still there, still the big boss.

The link in the first post leads to an image. The reporting on this story by videogame journalists has been extremely inaccurate.

Here is video on this that goes into greater detail.

Here are the basic steps for forming a union. They are on step 2, what happens next will depend on what Activision-Blizzard does, most likely they will ignore it or demand an election anyway.

And here is another twitter thread with more details about potential issues.

Short summary:

• a union has not been formed
• a number of Raven Software QA testers have shown the desire to form a union
• it is unclear if they can form a union, they have to be employees, not independent contractors
• it is unclear if the job they do is separate enough from the rest of the employees of Raven or Activision-Blizzard to form a union

If you think games take a long time to develop now, wait until unions and the massive amounts of red tape they bring are added to the mix.

As someone who has been a union member and a contractor at the same facility, I understand why unions are necessary and detest them. They're often just as corrupt and driven by greed as corporations, they breed entitlement, and they drill workers with propaganda. People often get mad if you talk about the negatives unions bring but it's just as important to talk about that as the positives.

My experience with unions as a former teacher:

-Pay the dues or don't be hired in many districts.
-Union does basically nothing to protect you from bigger issues/litigation, despite claims they will, and districts will only help as long as they're on the line too.
-Constant pressure to donate money towards and vote for liberal causes and candidates.
-Salary negotiations every couple years with the district that didn't even match inflation adjustments.

In my experience as a former union member, and child of an activist and member of a different union, is that most unions in the US do a better job of lining the fat cats' pockets than taking care of their members.  

IMO, unions are good in theory, bad in practice. I'd never join one again.