you’re able to do that anywhere.
I reached out to Mitchell, who was gracious enough to spend time explaining the process to me.
That was certainly the case for us, Mitchell says.
Now, doing that organising is Mitchells role.
So what exactly does it entail?
From an organiser standpoint, you’re asking folks about their workplace.
Why is it that they want a union?
It could be a combination.
You make a run at get a landscape of the workplace.
From an organising standpoint, youre trying to understand the culture that youre dealing with - the organisational structure.
Like, whos whos boss is really important to know.
Which teams integrate with which teams and work with them more or less frequently?
Which teams are maybe siloed from each other?
Mitchell gives her own QA department at Zenimax as an example.
We have a handful of basically embedded testers, meaning they work very specifically with Bethesda Game Studio.
It was a unique scenario, says Mitchell, since different people were reporting to different bosses.
Understanding this sort of thing is crucial.
It could change the shape of what a union looks like.
Its one of the reasons the CWA advise against the use of mass messaging platforms like Discord.
Its about building strength between you, knocking down those virtual barriers and rebuilding community.
What you want to do is to get to know your coworkers again.
You want to rebuild the community at work.
You want to figure out what kinds of issues move them if they’ve been having problems at work.
It teaches you the fundamentals of your rights.
It’s basically taking three days of training and pushing it into four hours.
Throughout all this, that confidentiality remains crucial.
We’re working against some pretty massive corporations, says Mitchell.
The imbalance of power is very obvious.
Its around this time the CODE-CWA would help them start the official process.
Youre telling them, okay, were going to go public.
At this stage, you’re sort of prepping for an anti-union campaign.
Those anti-union campaigns can take different forms.
Its honey and vinegar, says Mitchell.
The honey is like were a family.
You dont ever have to have a union to come and talk to me.
Really sad and sappy.
Taking it very personally.
You’re not going to be able to accomplish anything on your own anymore.
Your wages are going to be impacted negatively.
And it’s just lies - a whole bunch of horrific venomous lies.
One day it’s pizza parties.
The next day it’s you’re all going to get laid off.
Its like being in a toxic relationship.
Another tactic, says Mitchell, can involve the company just giving workers raises.
Everyone goes oh, so they are listening!
We dont need a union.
I would tell them to take the wage increase and to keep organising.
You know, you haven’t even formed a union yet.
You haven’t even certified.
Imagine what you’re able to accomplish as a union.
It’s an indicator that they’re trying to take some control back.
In those campaigns, were not facing anti-union rhetoric from the company.
Its worth pointing out here that the CWA arent the only the option for workers.
Since labour laws differ between countries, the CWAs work only covers North America.
Some unions might even choose to go independent.
The CWA, says Mitchell, are historically made up of tech workers across the spectrum.
Phone companies, cable companies, call center and customer service workers.
In games and tech, technology is obviously whats impacting the work.
A good example, Mitchell says, is the monopolisation of cable in the US.
CWA had the experience of fighting back with the organised workers.
The monopolisation of the games industry.
The creation of new technology also impacts telecommunications workers, customer service workers.
2023 saw over 10,000 industry job losses, and that number sits over 12,000 for 2024so far.
Not buying games can actually negatively impact the fact that they put all this work into these games.
Unless they tell you not to buy the game, you should probably be buying the games."
Every single campaign is going to be a little bit different, right?
But the fundamentals of organising a union aren’t necessarily different.
We are stronger together.
