That's the image corporations want people to have on unions. It's working well it seems. Nevermind that in the US the membership money you pay (in general arounf $700 a year) also in general gives you a full healthcare plan for much cheaper than you could ever get it though other means.

One major problem in the US is however that since Reagan took office unions have lost much of their power to do anything effective. In other countries unions are much more powerful and as a result can get results much easier and much more effectively than in the US, where agreements with unions tend to be non-binding or only for the members of the union and not all the employees.

For the record, I have a union membership here in Luxembourg. I pay a grand total of 0.25€ per month in membership fees, so 4€ a year.

Where did I say anywhere that I support the illegal downloading/sharing/etc of ROMs?  I think that Nintendo is far to anal about it, but I agree that we should support and legitimately purchase content whenever possible.  For example, I play tons of retro games but every game I play I own a legitimately purchased copy of it.  The problem is that many of my games are from the 90's and the carts/discs are now too expensive to replace.  There is also the issue that even normal usage of these extremely old games is destructive and I have dead Shadows of the Empire and Dragon Warrior carts from the past year to prove this.  Am I criminal for wanting to back up my games from the 90's to be able to safely access the content?  This is what Nintendo has to say about it:

https://en-americas-support.nintendo.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/55888/~/intellectual-property-%26-piracy-faq#s2q7

Frankly, the double standard is sickening.  Nintendo is taking a legal grey area and asserting that it is illegal for people to want to preserve and access their own legitimately purchased content in the privacy of their own home but then it is totally OK I assume to illegally surveil employees and union bust.

Also, you are fooling yourself if you think that Nintendo is only going after people making boatloads of cash off of their IP:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIC21WNOWl0

Frankly, Nintendo's own words reveal that if they had the means they would like to prosecute most of the people on this board for their past actions downloading ROMs or modding like the RIAA did for music downloading in the 2000's, it's just that they only have the resources to sue so many people.  I guess that I am just the only person here who feels repulsed by it.

Now, I am hearing that Nintendo may be violating worker rights, it just adds icing on the cake for me.

And just to repeat myself in case I get accused of it again: no I do not support nor am I advocating the illegal downloading of ROMs.  Just because I think the penalty Nintendo is administering is unjust in most cases does not mean that I think that the acts are A-OK or that I condone it.

Maybe in some countries they needed I guess. Here in Australia most unions have lost their way of what the core function is and become all about collecting membership money for the guys running them. When it comes to negotiate they don't even know the laws that are applicable or bail on you when the negotiations are getting tough. They think they can just tell people to strike and think there will be no consequences lol. There are formal laws which they have to follow for a strike to happen.  Some unions just sign up members they have no power to represent so they can get their money from them lol.

You can't just join any union, it has to be one that is relevant to the industry you are in. As far as I am aware I don't even think the video game industry has a union in America or maybe it is new and still trying to grow members.

There simply shouldn't be any difference in treatment between unionized and non-unionized workers, which includes non-contract workers.

I often forget that not all countries have general unions which are active in pretty much all domains.

Nintendo said in response:

"We are aware of the claim, which was filed with the National Labor Relations Board by a contractor who was previously terminated for the disclosure of confidential information and for no other reason. Nintendo is not aware of any attempts to unionize or related activity and intends to cooperate with the investigation conducted by the NLRB.

Nintendo is fully committed to providing a welcoming and supportive work environment for all our employees and contractors. We take matters of employment very seriously."

https://nintendoeverything.com/nintendo-issues-statement-on-nlrb-labor-complaint/

Reading the threads on twitter honestly it sounds no worst or better than most companies in any industry. People get fired all the time for various reasons when companies get restructured. They get restructured usually to achieve just that because in say the previous 5/10 years they have bloated and want to lean down.

The problem with this is, generally it is the good people that suffer because there is always a group of people who suck up to management to ensure they survive these events. Generally their input to work is minimal too. 

One of the threads mentioned people close to retirement also getting fired. That is general practice when stuff gets restructured. Start with the old as they are a financial liability because they have many days of annual leave and sick leave saved up generally. What I am not sure off is whether the company has to pay them out if they are made redundant. Where I work in Australia, i think they have to pay us out 2 or 3 weeks per year of service. Up to like 20 or 30 weeks. So when you do get cut you still get a decent payout to tie you over whilst trying to find your next job.

Generally when you get fired, I have found that better opportunities arise as for some unexplainable reason when it happens at the time there is some great job elsewhere, maybe I have jsut been lucky in that regard lol.

In what way? All they did was deny the accusation.

I only buy the last sentence.