Harris to meet with Amazon, Starbucks organizers
Harris to meet with Amazon, Starbucks organizers
Vice President Harris will meet with a collection of labor groups at the White House on Thursday, including representatives from the Amazon Labor Union and Starbucks Workers United.
Labor Secretary Marty Walsh will also be at the meeting featuring ALU President Christian Smalls and grassroot organizers from Starbucks/SEIU, United Paizo Workers/CWA, Titmouse Productions/IATSE, Baltimore Public…
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Over 30 employees of Pathfinder and Starfinder publisher Paizo Inc. today announced the formation of the United Paizo Workers union with support from the Communication Workers of America, the largest media labor union in the United States. United Paizo Workers is the first union of its kind in the tabletop role-playing industry.
“Unions have helped build a stronger working class in America and I’m proud to stand with United Paizo Workers,��� said Paizo editor Shay Snow via press release. “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.”
Based in Redmond, Washington, Paizo is one of the world’s largest publishers of tabletop role-playing games, often considered a direct competitor to Dungeons & Dragons publisher Wizards of the Coast. In fact, the company was founded to publish the long-running, official D&D magazines Dungeon and Dragon before Wizards of the Coast declined to renew the licenses in 2007. Paizo subsequently began work on its own role-playing game, Pathfinder, publishing the paper-and-pencil adventure’s first book in 2009.
“Paizo runs some of the most successful living campaigns in tabletop gaming history, with regular players in more than 36 countries,” the United Paizo Workers press release goes on to explain. “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.”
The workers who have signed their names to the United Paizo Workers union announcement range from game designers and editors to software developers and engineers.
Paizo was heavily criticized earlier this year for the firing of Sara Marie, a 12-year veteran of the company who handled customer service and community management. Diego Valdez, who worked under Marie, resigned shortly after, blasting the company for the “cowardly nature” of Marie’s firing and its lack of “managerial competence and integrity” on his way out the door.
This all came to a head when former employee Jessica Price published a lengthy Twitter thread accusing Paizo executives of (among other things) sexual harassment, fighting against diversity efforts within the company, and firing Marie for pushing back against the toxic work environment these actions fostered. Paizo president Jeff Alvarez initially sidestepped these claims before promising vague improvements in a follow-up statement.
“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,” the Paizo union announcement continues. “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.”
United Paizo Workers is calling on the rest of the tabletop role-playing community for support in its efforts and urges Paizo management to voluntarily recognize the union ahead of negotiations.
“Changes have been promised, internally and externally, by the executive team,” the press release concludes. “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.”
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We, the Paizo workers, recognize that workplace issues shouldn’t be management’s responsibility to solve in a vacuum, and we want to have a seat at the table for discussions on our working conditions and livelihoods. We believe our support is invaluable to management as we all work to make Paizo the best it can be.
For this reason we, the United Paizo Workers (UPW), are invoking our right to organize and administer a vote to form a union. We are working closely with Communications Workers of America (CWA), who have helped organize and represent other workers in the entertainment and gaming industries. We want Paizo and the products we make together to be successful, and to nurture a positive work environment for all staff. We believe that our union is the best avenue with which we as employees can help management achieve that.
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Paizo Staff Launch United Paizo Workers to Unionize
Paizo Staff Launch United Paizo Workers to Unionize #CWA #Union #Pathfinder #Starfinder #TTRPG
Announced in a series of tweets, over 30 members of the Paizo Publishing staff have formed United Paizo Workers (UPW). The movement is one of the first unions of its kind in the tabletop game industry. This is the first step to invoke a vote to form a union at the company. The organization is working with the Communications Workers of America (CWA).
Paizo is the game publishing company behind…
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Semi-Masterpost of October 2021 Strikes & Union Actions
If you’re like me, it’s probably hard to keep track of how many strikes are happening/being threatened and how many unions are being formed. I only really find out about stuff on here, but even then posts might fall through the cracks.
So, here’s a short list of the news from this last month.
October 1, 2021: Around 2,000 workers at Mercy Hospital, in Buffalo, walk off and strike.
October 4, 2021: The International Association of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) has 90% turnout on a strike authorization vote, approves the vote by 98.7%.
October 5, 2021: Over 1,400 workers - members of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union - go on strike at Kelloggs after contract negotiations break down. According to this article, this impacts ALL Kelloggs factories in the U.S.
October 11, 2021: Kelloggs puts out an Indeed ad for workers, specifically for ones willing to cross the picket line. This ad is still up as of October 17, 2021.
ALSO October 11, 2021: Kaiser Permanente workers in California and Oregon vote to authorize a strike against Kaiser, with nearly 21,000 workers giving a 96% approval vote.
October 13, 2021: A company-wide walkout is planned at Netflix for October 20 by trans employees, due both to Dave Chappelle’s recent stand up special - and its homophobic and transphobic jokes - as well as the CEO’s reactions to criticism.
ALSO October 13, 2021: A strike date is set by the IATSE for October 18.
October 14, 2021: The United Paizo Worker Union is announced with over 30 members, making it the first of its kind in both the tabletop RPG and board game industry. Apparently this has been fomenting for a while due to shitty practices at Paizo, with the September firing of Sara Marie helping tip things over the edge.
ALSO October 14, 2021: “About 10,000 members of the United Auto Workers union” went on strike against John Deere, shutting down operations at 11 plants and 3 distribution centers. Apparently a new contract was tentatively struck, only for ~90% of the workers to reject its terms. To quote the article, “This is the nation's largest private-sector strike since the UAW waged a costly six-week strike against General Motors (GM) two years ago.”
ALSO ALSO October 14, 2021: Workers strike outside a Kaiser Permanente facility in Roseville, California. Unsure if these people are connected to those who authorized a strike on October 11.
October 15, 2021: A day into the John Deere strike, with salary office workers pulled in to fill the gap, and already the salary workers are pissed, with many talking of either unionizing themselves or finding new work.
ALSO October 15, 2021: A general strike, first spoken of in July 2021 and somewhat organized by Labor Movement X, was set to occur. With major issues involved in the planning, the turnout - if any - is low.
ALSO October 15, 2021: Netflix fires one of the leaders of the trans employee resource group organizing the walkout. To my knowledge, no word from employees on if the walkout is still to occur.
October 17, 2021: Hours before the IATSE strike is due to begin on October 18, a tentative deal is struck with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). However, the contract might still be rejected by the workers, with many expressing unhappiness with the terms.
ALSO October 17, 2021: 200 bus drivers in North Carolina announce plans for a strike on October 22, “with demands including increased pay, better bus radios, and incentives for perfect attendance.”
In addition, this article mentions food-production related strikes that occurred earlier this year - Nabisco, Frito-Lay, and a distillery by the name of Heaven Hill Distillery - while this article speaks of past hospital strikes and that more might be coming.
In summation: Mercy Hospital is still striking at of October 16 - more than two weeks after their strike started - and are getting support from the Communications Workers of America union; Kelloggs is still on strike, closing in on two weeks after it started; John Deere is still on strike; the Netflix walkout for October 20 might still be occurring; IATSE might not be striking anymore but the workers might still reject the contract they were offered; and there’s more I’m probably missing but god I’ve been working on this for like two hours now.
(This article covers stuff just from Oct 9-Oct 16, covering both major companies and a lot of the regional strikes.)
Feel free to add on if I’m missing anything, or as things develop!
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