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Unionizing the Video Game Industry

On this episode of Tech Won't Save Us, Taylor Welling and Kathryn Friesen discuss the emergent labor movement within video game developers, and their own contributions to it.

Paris Marx

September 5, 2024

SAG-AFTRA union video game performers strike outside Warner Bros. Games, part of the Global Streaming and Interactive Entertainment unit of Warner Bros. Discovery, in Burbank, California, on August 1, 2024. (Photo by Chris Delmas / AFP via Getty Images)

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Unionizing the Video Game Industry w/ Taylor Welling & Kathryn Friesen | Tech Won’t Save Us
byThe Nation Magazine

On this episode of Tech Won't Save Us, Paris Marx is joined by Taylor Welling and Kathryn Friesen to discuss how they formed wall-to-wall unions in the video game industry and their thoughts on broader challenges like layoffs and corporate consolidation.

Taylor Welling is a producer and union member at OneBGS and Kathryn Friesen is quest designer and member of the World of Warcraft GameMakers Guild.

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On this episode of the Tech Won’t Save Us podcast, we’re joined by Taylor Welling and Kathryn Friesen to discuss how they formed wall-to-wall unions in the video game industry and their thoughts on broader challenges like layoffs and corporate consolidation.

Taylor Welling is a producer and union member at OneBGS and Kathryn Friesen is quest designer and member of the World of Warcraft GameMakers Guild.

The Nation Podcasts

Here's where to find podcasts from The Nation. Political talk without the boring parts, featuring the writers, activists and artists who shape the news, from a progressive perspective.

How Mass Layoffs Changed Working in Tech w/ Clarissa Redwine & JS Tan / Tech Won’t Save Us
byThe Nation Magazine

Not long ago, tech jobs were sought after for their security, benefits, wages, and the progressive values promoted by Silicon Valley companies. But now workers are barely hanging on. Clarissa Redwine and JS Tan join Paris Marx to discuss the state of worker organizing in the tech industry, including how it’s changed since the mid-2010s and where it needs to go from here.

Clarissa Redwine is a tech worker and labor activist. JS Tan is a PhD candidate at MIT and writes the Value Added newsletter. They are the authors of Against Tech Oligarchy: Worker Resistance in the World's Most Powerful Industry.

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Paris MarxParis Marx is the author of Hyperscale: The Ambition and Excess of Big Tech's Data Empires. He hosts the Tech Won’t Save Us podcast and writes the Disconnect newsletter.


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