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Funny how the "story" doesn't link to the announcement it mostly copied from the CWA.[1] Here's the link to the union organizing page.[2] No draft union contra

by Animats 11mo ago

Funny how the "story" doesn't link to the announcement it mostly copied from the CWA.[1] Here's the link to the union organizing page.[2] No draft union contract for Id, though. Interestingly, this is an industrial ("wall to wall") union, rather than a craft union such as The Animation Guild. IATSE Local 839, in Hollywood. TAG only represents specific jobs, mostly animation artists. A key point in TAG contracts is how "crunch time" is handled. It's allowed, but overtime rates go way, way up as the hours go up. This is standard procedure in Hollywood. Some terms from TAG's standard contract: All time worked in excess of eight (8) hours per day or forty (40) hours per week shall be paid at one and one-half (1½) times the hourly rate provided herein for such employee's classification. Time worked on the employee's sixth workday of the workweek shall be paid at one and one-half (1½) times the hourly rate provided herein for such employee's classification. Time worked on the employee's seventh workday of the workweek shall be paid at two (2) times the hourly rate provided herein for such employee's classification. All time worked in excess of fourteen (14) consecutive hours (including meal periods) from the time of reporting to work shall be Golden Hours and shall be paid at two (2) times the applicable hourly rate provided herein for such employee's classification.[3] This encourages management to schedule realistically. The Id/CWA deal isn't far enough along for those terms to be visible yet. But such terms are common in CWA contracts. [1] https://cwa-union.org/news/releases/video-game-developers-texas-vote-form-latest-wall-wall-union-cwa https://cwa-union.org/news/releases/video-game-developers-te... [2] https://code-cwa.org/ https://code-cwa.org/ [3] https://animationguild.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/2024-2027-Master-CBA.pdf https://animationguild.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/2024-2...

PacificSpecific 11mo ago
That sounds great. I've worked so many days where I work 18 hours for zero extra pay. I usually get a free dinner and a cab ride home and that's it.
- torginus 11mo ago
  In my experience, getting management recognition for overtime is an uphill battle. Even when I did get paid at some elevated rate, if we divided actual hours worked with the money I got, I still made way less than my hourly rate.
  - PacificSpecific 11mo ago
    Yeah that's happened to me too, better than nothing though! Luckily my current work comps my time into PTO and they are generally fairly accurate. Definitely an exception though. This is the only job I've had in the games industry that has done this for me.
  - wordpad 11mo ago
    Some places will just ask you to make up the hours by not working some other days but you're still expected to complete the same work. Reminds me of unlimited vacations policies. Great on paper.
adi_kurian 11mo ago
How quite reasonable.
sapphicsnail 11mo ago
Would you mind explaining the difference between industrial vs trade union? Would something like the janitorial staff of a building owned by a gaming company be covered in an industrial union?
- Animats 11mo ago
  Ask Google about "difference between industrial and craft union". There's US labor history involved. The AFL-CIO was formed by a 1955 merger of the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations. The AFL was the umbrella organization for the craft unions - electricians, plumbers, etc. The CIO was the umbrella organization for the industrial unions - everybody non-management in an auto plant, everybody non-management in a steel mill, etc. That's what "wall to wall" means. Agreeing on the bargaining unit is a major issue in employer-union relations. A "wall to wall" agreement avoids internal issues over who can do what job. (Is plumbing for compressed air a plumber or a steamfitter job?) That helps the employer. But it gives the union more leverage over the employer because the union has all the employees.
- baubino 11mo ago
  Industrial unions organize by shop; craft unions organize by trade. Industrial unions have much greater leverage because they can (theoretically) change conditions for the entire workplace, not just for one group of workers in the workplace. Historically, this meant, for example, organizing everyone in the auto factory in one union as “auto workers” instead of having machinists in one union, engravers in another union, mechanics in another, etc.
unionmember99 11mo ago
Member of a union here -- two, in fact! -- in unrelated industries. "1.5x for overtime, 2x for 7th day" is pretty standard. If they were hourly employees and not getting a deal similar to this before, they were getting ripped off.
- deburo 11mo ago
  You know, 1.5x for overtime seems great until it is enforced for everybody (like it's done in Quebec) and so it is forbidden by company leadership unless it is deemed a necessity. So for people with more time on their hands than responsabilities, they usually can't (voluntarily) work more in their main job to boost their pay, and so they get side jobs, which are usually not declared. Mandated 1.5x overtime has consequences. Another side effect (that I know happens in manufacturing jobs) is that people will deliberately slow their work during the week to work overtime on the weekend. I'd wager this is very common in jobs with frequent overtime opportunities.
  - gopher_space 11mo ago
    > So for people with more time on their hands than responsabilities What kind of widget are we building where underemployed meth-heads get to show up for as long as they want and set their own pay schedules? Nothing in life works like this. Look at it this way: Why would you hire someone who doesn't think they're worth market rate?
sbierwagen 11mo ago
Double time at 14 hours? IBEW local 46 starts double time after 10: https://ibew46.com/media/7641/071724iwtentativelyagreedto.pdf https://ibew46.com/media/7641/071724iwtentativelyagreedto.pd...
- tremon 11mo ago
  Electrical work is physical work, to point out just one obvious difference.
specialist 11mo ago
Thanks for explaining. This is a great win. Noob me hoped "wall-to-wall" meant something like "everyone in the building". Reasoning that once the whole of a company is unionized, it's a short hop to worker directed social enterprise (a co-op, more or less).

by Animats 11mo ago

PacificSpecific 11mo ago

That sounds great. I've worked so many days where I work 18 hours for zero extra pay. I usually get a free dinner and a cab ride home and that's it.

torginus 11mo ago
In my experience, getting management recognition for overtime is an uphill battle. Even when I did get paid at some elevated rate, if we divided actual hours worked with the money I got, I still made way less than my hourly rate.
- PacificSpecific 11mo ago
  Yeah that's happened to me too, better than nothing though! Luckily my current work comps my time into PTO and they are generally fairly accurate. Definitely an exception though. This is the only job I've had in the games industry that has done this for me.
- wordpad 11mo ago
  Some places will just ask you to make up the hours by not working some other days but you're still expected to complete the same work. Reminds me of unlimited vacations policies. Great on paper.

adi_kurian 11mo ago

How quite reasonable.

sapphicsnail 11mo ago

Would you mind explaining the difference between industrial vs trade union? Would something like the janitorial staff of a building owned by a gaming company be covered in an industrial union?

Animats 11mo ago
Ask Google about "difference between industrial and craft union". There's US labor history involved. The AFL-CIO was formed by a 1955 merger of the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations. The AFL was the umbrella organization for the craft unions - electricians, plumbers, etc. The CIO was the umbrella organization for the industrial unions - everybody non-management in an auto plant, everybody non-management in a steel mill, etc. That's what "wall to wall" means. Agreeing on the bargaining unit is a major issue in employer-union relations. A "wall to wall" agreement avoids internal issues over who can do what job. (Is plumbing for compressed air a plumber or a steamfitter job?) That helps the employer. But it gives the union more leverage over the employer because the union has all the employees.
baubino 11mo ago
Industrial unions organize by shop; craft unions organize by trade. Industrial unions have much greater leverage because they can (theoretically) change conditions for the entire workplace, not just for one group of workers in the workplace. Historically, this meant, for example, organizing everyone in the auto factory in one union as “auto workers” instead of having machinists in one union, engravers in another union, mechanics in another, etc.

unionmember99 11mo ago

Member of a union here -- two, in fact! -- in unrelated industries. "1.5x for overtime, 2x for 7th day" is pretty standard. If they were hourly employees and not getting a deal similar to this before, they were getting ripped off.

deburo 11mo ago
You know, 1.5x for overtime seems great until it is enforced for everybody (like it's done in Quebec) and so it is forbidden by company leadership unless it is deemed a necessity. So for people with more time on their hands than responsabilities, they usually can't (voluntarily) work more in their main job to boost their pay, and so they get side jobs, which are usually not declared. Mandated 1.5x overtime has consequences. Another side effect (that I know happens in manufacturing jobs) is that people will deliberately slow their work during the week to work overtime on the weekend. I'd wager this is very common in jobs with frequent overtime opportunities.
- gopher_space 11mo ago
  > So for people with more time on their hands than responsabilities What kind of widget are we building where underemployed meth-heads get to show up for as long as they want and set their own pay schedules? Nothing in life works like this. Look at it this way: Why would you hire someone who doesn't think they're worth market rate?

sbierwagen 11mo ago

Double time at 14 hours? IBEW local 46 starts double time after 10: https://ibew46.com/media/7641/071724iwtentativelyagreedto.pdf https://ibew46.com/media/7641/071724iwtentativelyagreedto.pd...

tremon 11mo ago
Electrical work is physical work, to point out just one obvious difference.

specialist 11mo ago

Thanks for explaining. This is a great win. Noob me hoped "wall-to-wall" meant something like "everyone in the building". Reasoning that once the whole of a company is unionized, it's a short hop to worker directed social enterprise (a co-op, more or less).