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Businesses Entertainment Games

Game Industry Workers Get Voice 48

Posted by Zonk
Shodan writes "eToychest writes that a new game union of sorts has been formed to both recruit new industry talent, as well as give them a unified voice when it comes to maintaining a work/life balance. PEER (Professional Electronic Entertainment Recruiters) was created to establish and maintain ethical work standards and optimum recruiting service for game industry developers, publishers, and related industry companies." From the article: "The part that catches my eye is 'ethical work standards', which I cannot help but think was established, at least in part, due to all of the fervor surrounding EA and the treatment of its employees. The group seems to be a sort of 'worker's union', as they say that in an era where quality of life and rapid growth are chief concerns, PEER gives its members 'a representative voice.'" It will be interesting to see where this leads.
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Game Industry Workers Get Voice More

Game Industry Workers Get Voice

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  • I've got some friends in the UK who are game developers. What about them?

    • Re:Is it just for the US? (Score:4, Informative)

      by malsdavis ( 542216 ) * on Thursday February 09, 2006 @10:06PM (#14684003)
      Unions are a firm UK tradition ...just like the riots that they often cause. So there are already lots of powerful unions which UK programmers can join.

      The BECTU http://www.bectu.org.uk/ [bectu.org.uk] are a good one with 25,000 members, mainly media company employees though (which apparently includes Game Development). If they identify more as software engineers than game developers then there are a host of engineering unions who would accept them. Amicus http://www.amicustheunion.org/ [amicustheunion.org] are amongst the biggest and already have many thousands (I think) of IT employees as members.

      The TUC website http://www.tuc.org.uk/ [tuc.org.uk] is probably the best online resource though.

      • Riots caused by unions was a government perpetrated myth from the eighties.

        I think there is a broad problem with people in the IT industry not being part of organized labour. It seems that programmers and the like "should be happy to be working where they are" and shut up and not complain if they have to work crazy overtime hours.

        I think organized labour is a part of a healthy job market. Not having labour organizations is like a market where the buyer or seller has a monopoly on goods, that is not a good s
        • Labor unions in general just increase required salary and thusly decrease the number hired, if hiring from a union labor pool. But more likely any business will see that the dumb fucking labor unions are artificially inflating their constituents incomes, and they can much more easily decide to go with cheap non-unionized outsourced labor. Have fun with your unions. If the market is getting that saturated maybe you should look into a different field rather than trying to find means of artificially bolster
          • Find me one CEO who doesn't try to artificially bolster their salary beyond what (true, open, honest) market forces would dictate, and I will concede you may have a point. As long as the ruling class uses it's power and money to screw us working folk out of the fruits of our labor, we are completely justified in screwing them back. And if you say, "Well the market doesn't work that way," I will reply, "It sure as hell does for the rich, why not us?"
  • Perhaps I've merely met a bad lot, but recruiters care far more about getting paid [by their clients, the game companies] than for the product they're selling [you].

  • Ummm no (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    This looks like a poor attempt at a union, if that. Infact this does not constitute a union. A union is where you pay dues and have union representation, union procedure on company property, and the government actually classifies you as a union. Its just a collective group of recruiters, not a union. It seems also this isnt an actual article Recruiters just care about cashing in on other people placement, they don't really care about the long term happiness of the employee they place.

  • This is not a union at all (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    This is a group of recruiters who get from 15%-30% of the first years salary as a placement fee.

  • Just another form of Peer to Peer comunications (Score:3, Interesting)

    by technoextreme ( 885694 ) on Thursday February 09, 2006 @08:19PM (#14683217)
    that some companies will try and squash.
  • ..... when the Teamsters get behind this. After all, a that's group associated with organized crime [wikipedia.org] will tend to generate respect from employers.

  • But damn it, it's "furor" not "ferver." Nor should "furor" be confused wyth "Führer."

    • The poster said 'fervor' not 'ferver'.

      fervor could be correct Intense heat, or passion.

      Of course he probably did mean furor, but technical 'fervor' works.

  • Unions... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 09, 2006 @08:26PM (#14683266)
    ...the best way to get your job outsourced!

    Unions are bred out of necessity, don't get me wrong. They are a great way for truly oppressed workers to force a change for the better. But, the problem is, once they get up a head a steam they become unstoppable juggernauts. Eventually, they run their own business into the ground. They first use their power to lift themselves up to some necessary minimum standards, then they force things, slowly but steadily, more and more in their favor. Until, eventually, they are getting guaranteed easy work at excellent pay from which it's nearly impossible to fire them. With costs so high, The Man to whom they just Stuck It To hemmorhages to death.

    With some notable exceptions, game industry workers have it pretty good over all. You hear lots of talk about EA in particular, but nobody ever mentions their nice benefits packages. Last I checked -- this may not be true any more -- salaried professionals there get stock options and bonuses, along with PPO medical coverage (that includes drugs, pretty standard dental, and even a little for vision as well), and respectable paid time off. I worked there five years, and while I was called on to put in long weeks every now and again, those were the exception rather than the rule. Mostly they were 50-hour "crunch" time weeks, with a couple 60-hour ones thrown in, maybe 5-10 weeks out of the year. The rest of the time it was 8x5, with the occasional company-provided beer party starting on a Friday afternoon (during business hours) thrown in to help everybody unwind after meeting a milestone.

    The game industry doesn't need a union. We're not the underpaid, overworked, downtrodden masses people want to think we are.

    • Re:Unions... (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Great republican attack line, but generally not true, just FUD.

      Chances are that if you are working at a place where they will try to get rid of you when you unionize (i.e. Wal*Mart), you have a piss poor job anyway and no other choice.

      Next you will claim they outsourced, lets say production of The Simpsons to Asia because the artists doing it where unionized.

      • Re:Unions... (Score:3, Informative)

        by Dachannien ( 617929 )
        The U.S. auto and airline industries have been in such dire straits because of their pension and health plans, which became exorbitant because of the continuous hardball played by the labor unions.

        The problem isn't the concept of the labor union, though, but rather the execution. Since unions are controlled by elected officials who serve as career union officers, they effectively have a mandate to continue to negotiate new contracts further and further in favor of the workers, even when all of the issues o
      • Logical fallacy: Ad hominem attack.

    • Re:Unions... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by mad.frog ( 525085 ) <steven&crinklink,com> on Thursday February 09, 2006 @09:24PM (#14683734)
      Glad to hear you had an OK experience there. Many others at EA didn't share that experience.

      Had a reputable union been available during my stint at EA, I would have joined in a heartbeat. I don't know if the game *industry* needs a union, but EA (when I was there) absolutely did.

    • Re:Unions... (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      While I wouldn't call myself downtrodden (I don't work for EA), my girlfriend, who works for a retail chain, has benefits comparable to mine, and when she was promoted to manager she's paid a wage (not salary) that isn't too far off from mine. She doesn't have to deal with overtime (because the company doesn't want to pay it), and she comes home every day after eight hours. Granted, those eight hours might be in the morning or the evening, but its always eight hours. Compare to me, who even when I am hom

    • Re:Unions... (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      I would have to say the opposite of what you just said. I worked for EA for over 3 years and although the permanent full time employees do get nice benefits there aren't that many permanent full time employees. EA had a bad habit of keeping people in a temporary or probationary position for multiple years before finally giving them a permanent position and those nice benefits. But that is just health coverage; the majority of permanent employees no longer get bonuses. They were phased out for stock options

    • Re:Unions... (Score:3, Insightful)

      by CastrTroy ( 595695 )
      I have the same opinion of unions. They sprout up when they need to, when things are really bad, but they stay around even when things are good, pushing the company for more and more. I'd have to even wonder if there is a need for unions in first world countries. Most of the things that unions originally fought for are now in law, so that employees aren't working in dangerous conditions, or aren't working 80 hours a week without proper compensation. There are still a few places where unions could help w

      • Re:Unions... (Score:2, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward
        The problem is that unions, like standing armies, have to be around in order to be unnecessary.
        • We all know the saying
          "The best way to avoid a trap is to know of its existence."

          Are not the majority of games developers, let alone IT workers, intelligent
          enough to avoid falling into the same trap as other unions?

          Just as it was said, form a union to help with conditions, pay and benefits.
          Find a comfortable medium and rubber stamp Cost of Living increases with each contract.
          It's not difficult. Setup the union to avoid corruption and have checks in place to
          assure it.
    • From what I've read, its now almost continuous crunch time (finish one crunch project get thrown into another), up to 80 hour weeks, and no more extra vacation days (comp time I think it was called, usually equal to the time you did crunch time).
    • Excellent use of valuable astroturf. I applaud the PR company which posted this.

    • Re:Unions... (Score:3, Funny)

      by elrous0 ( 869638 )
      PPO medical coverage (that includes drugs, pretty standard dental, and even a little for vision as well)

      I can also attest that it covers mental health treatment. I had a friend who worked there and they were very generous with benfits after he ended up on that bridge with the rifle. I look after him now, and he's making real progress. Last night he didn't have a single coding-related nightmare!

      -Eric

  • I noticed (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Daysaway ( 916732 ) on Thursday February 09, 2006 @08:44PM (#14683390)
    The IGDA [igda.org] website is devoid of any mention of this new group. The International Game Developers Association already has a substantial presence in the industry.

  • Bah, game developers have it easy (Score:3, Funny)

    by afaik_ianal ( 918433 ) on Thursday February 09, 2006 @08:46PM (#14683409)
    So what if they have to work 80+ hours per week. Back in my day, I had to work 80 hours per day!

  • Recruiting company, not a union (Score:3, Informative)

    by cgenman ( 325138 ) on Thursday February 09, 2006 @08:51PM (#14683455) Homepage
    I don't see how this is a union. PEER is a recruiting company, and all of their goals revolve around this. "advance professional external recruiting," "improve and manifest the livelihoods of the candidates seeking career growth opportunities," "develop and improve the necessary skills to achieve high performance in professional external recruiting."

    Sure, it's a recruiting company with noble goals, and if I needed a recruiter that's who I would turn to. But it is a recruiting company, not a union.

    • Re:Recruiting company, not a union (Score:2, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      For many contracting people, the recruiter is the equivalent of a union.

      I've had people ask me to work unpaid overtime. A call to the contracting company, and it went away. I've had people ask me to do things in no way related to my job description. Again, a quick call and explanation, and it went away. I've had bosses try to hold my timesheet hostage conditional on various forms of knuckling under to idiocy. A quick call, and it gets sorted out.

      The recruiting company wants money. That means they want

    • Mod parent up (Score:4, Informative)

      by Animats ( 122034 ) on Thursday February 09, 2006 @09:59PM (#14683969) Homepage
      Right. No way is this a union. It's a trade association for headhunters. Not, incidentally, for contract-type outsourcing firms.

      What it really is, if you read their "charter", is a price-fixing scheme for headhunters. They "agree" that they should get 20% of the first year's salary, payable at hiring time.

      There's a real union for game developers - the Animation Guild, [mpsc839.org] local 839, IATSE, AFL-CIO. They represent most of the animation people in Hollywood, and they're organizing game developers who are artists. [mpsc839.org]

  • No they don't. (Score:3, Informative)

    by mad.frog ( 525085 ) <steven&crinklink,com> on Thursday February 09, 2006 @09:28PM (#14683757)
    I'm not sure what you'd call this, but it sure ain't a union.

    More like some sort of nebulous standards body for the recruiting agencies that serve the game industry.

    And since the employer (not the employee) typically pays the recruiter's fee, color me skeptical that this is anything more than PR.
  • Feb 10th, US game developers start union.
    Feb 11th, IIT debuts game developer courses.
    Feb 12th, thousands of US game developers laid off.

    We've already lost this game.

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