Unions are never good for the industry. They're good for protecting workers. Unfortunately, even when they aren't competent. It's a very efficient way to stifle innovation, increase bureaucracy, and cost to the consumer. Sure, it also protects workers beyond the already existing labor laws if you think that's necessary. Not worth the downsides though imo

As with most things, it's not as black and white as that.

It's because Unions can be hit or miss, and not always an ideal solution for everyone. Anyone who's worked as union members / boards, or for companies where union changed their employment for the worse has the understands the bad side of things that come with a union.

@crazyCoconuts gave perfect examples of how unions can ruin companies because his example explains the US Government and AT&T perfectly. A union protects everyone, even people we all know should be fired because they're a nightmare to the staff, they don't know how to do their jobs well regardless of training meaning someone has to now spend hours fixing their work making more work for everyone, and they collective destroy work culture. That's for the mass population, in terms of work.

As for top performers, pay is generally standardized, meaning there is less incentive for going above and beyond, because no matter what you're getting the same pay. In commission / talent based jobs this is a job killer because top-tier talent will seek other employment, leaving the company with mediocre talent or worse, said people who kill work culture and don't care about learning how to do their job, which overall tanks the company, causing non-stop escalations, etc...

So a union is not always a good thing or a cure. For the games industry, it's going to be a double-edged sword.

You might get rid of crunch, but that means everyone moves to salary. The people who were okay working the extra hours for overtime pay, no longer have that option, and that overtime could have been an extra $1,000 - $2,500 per week depending on the hours worked and their pay. Or an extra $4,000 - $10,000 for a month that they might have wanted due to debt, vacation, a personal gift, etc...

On the flip side everyone gets fair base pay across the nation of $60,000 + 10% salary bonus upon successful game launch. That's $60,000 per year, $66,000 the year the game comes out, (an instant $6,000 check). Yeah people who contribute to development like modifying work, or artist who touch up textures, etc... might be super happy going from $20/hr. working on an as-needed basis, but the level designer responsible for building worlds who is integral to the game's development and one of the greatest assets to the overall business goes from making $60,000 + 1% bonus of the games overall net sales ($50m), to the unions $60,000 + 10% salary bonus. He went from $60,000 + $500,000k, down to $60,000 + $6,000k, meaning the union F***ed him, and he's going to either have to promote up for a higher salary (but he may not even be a good communicator / leader), or he's going to quit and find work elsewhere.

#Union.

And all of this is coming from someone who is a union representative.

Tell me.... How does that make you feel?