Movement-capture employees on the distinguished online game firm behind NBA 2K and WWE 2K have voted to unionize with Hollywood crew union IATSE.
Fifteen employees at 2K’s movement seize studio in Petaluma, California voted to unionize with IATSE in a Nationwide Labor Relations Board election that came about on Friday morning, whereas six voted towards unionizing. All 21 employees — together with stage technicians, engineers, animators and recording and audio specialists — which can be within the proposed bargaining unit on the gaming studio took half within the vote.
So long as no objections are filed throughout the subsequent 5 days, the outcomes of the illustration election shall be licensed.
IATSE, which has been trying to arrange the online game trade for years, went public with its union drive at 2K on Oct. 23 because it filed for an NLRB election. The union positioned this organizing effort as historic, calling it the “first public union marketing campaign at a movement seize studio.” The union acknowledged on the time that the corporate didn’t reply to the labor group’s request to voluntarily acknowledge the union.
A 2K spokesperson appeared to verify this account, saying the corporate revered the rights of staff to decide on whether or not or to not unionize via “knowledgeable voting.” “We really feel that we’re finest served addressing these challenges and altering wants collectively via our present suggestions channels relatively than via a union,” the spokesperson added, however the firm welcomed the dialogue that may arrive on account of the union vote.
In line with IATSE, organizing 2K employees sought increased wages, better job safety and extra readability on the job duties related to specific job titles. In October the union acknowledged that the group was moreover trying to enhance working circumstances.
One of many organizing employees, 2K stage technician Connor Bredbeck, mentioned in an announcement in October that whereas working at 2K is a “dream come true,” the “inequities we’re experiencing are endemic to the gaming trade and detract from the work we’re all so keen about.”
Extra to return.