Id Software devs form "wall-to-wall" union

Good for them. During economic downturns, when fewer resources are available for redistribution, collective action across population groups can help address worsening power imbalances.

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-te...

[2] https://code-cwa.org/

[3] https://animationguild.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/2024-2...

I like the idea and encourage software workers unions. Is there an umbrella union that they can belong to? How effective are these new unions? I imagine these new tech unions don't have the same "shop floor" power as in industry. Why is this?

Perhaps generally the ideals the new unions are advocating for are different than traditional ones?

FWIW, the union (CWA) via its Seattle affiliate tried to get OPT banned, a visa status that many readers of HN benefited from - https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/cadc/2.... I encourage HN readers to better understand the relationship between unions and immigration before deciding whether they are in favor of joining/supporting unions.

Wow, even labor unions can run Doom now!

The problem is that unions are only as strong as the NLRB which depends on the current administration. One of Trump's first actions was firing of a democratic member making them unable to form quorum, so it's not looking good for the rest of his term and the supreme court is likely going to bless that firing making it even more susceptible to executive branch meddling in the future.

I also would like to see better 'tech' for tech unions to organize, vote on priorities, share grievances, elect representatives, etc.. Ideally moving to a fixed fee vs a % of compensation. It shouldn't require millions of dollars in overhead to organize.

It’ll be a bloodbath at Zenimax soon. They have a nasty army of lawyers.

As a non gaming engineer, I dont want a union, what I really want is solid (really, harsh) enforcement of basic common sense labor rules for exempt workers like weekly working hour limits, no after hours scheduling or minimum notice/severance period for layoffs & many other abuses. Problem is tech industry does not wants to give an inch and workers don't complain because of higher pay and 'lottery ticket' effect.

I fear the time for fixing this is passing fast. Its because within a decade AI will have enough of labor displacement that labor wont have any negotiating leverage against capital. If this happens with union, so be it.

Article is thin on details and full of changing adverts that scroll you up and down whilst reading (on mobile).

Annoying.

What happened to the Google union?

Congrats to them! Unions are the reason we have (had) an 8 hour day.

Somewhere, John Carmack, in his new conservative era, is seething.

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I don’t understand what gives the union power at the end of the day when the company could easily outsource development and license their ip and fire everyone.

Automotive plants have large factories, but when the primary assets are intangible intellectual property, I don’t understand how much power a union really has.

Curious if this was workers casting off the shackles of their oppression or a luxury option for a group that is already well off?

>RTO policies should not be handed down from executives with no consideration for accessibility or our well-being.

If you don't like it, then quit. No one is forcing you to work for Id Software.