Labores Ludos Gignit!

For the second year in a row, while celebrities, media and industry executives gathered inside the Microsoft Theater in Downtown Los Angeles, CA, to celebrate the so-called “best” the video game industry had to offer, another narrative coalesced outside. Theirs was a narrative that nobody, not even “voice of the industry” Geoff Keighley himself, could completely silence. Microsoft Theater staff tried to get them to move to a “free speech zone.” The Game Awards security tried to keep their pins from entering the theater. LAPD tried to get them to leave. And through it all, no matter what, the Game Workers of Southern California stood in front of the industry and proudly proclaimed: Labor Creates Games!

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Photos and other art materials provided by Game Workers of Southern California

For almost half a decade now, the movement to unionize the video game industry in earnest has slowly been building momentum. Groups like Game Workers Unite have been working diligently to support organizing efforts in the industry for years. As these grassroots labor organizations evolve and other groups, like CODE-CWA, become more established, what once was a cold impossibility has not only become more possible, the movement has made real, concrete gains.

One group that sprang out of the possibility space created by Game Workers Unite is Game Workers of Southern California, which is, according to its website: “an all-volunteer labor rights advocacy group made up of workers, students, and activists fighting for better working conditions in the California games industry and beyond.” No Escape had the opportunity to sit down with members of GWSC to talk to them about their history, their decisions to stand in solidarity with other unconventional labor efforts in Southern California, what they learned from their second consecutive demonstration outside the Game Awards, and their hopes for 2023 and beyond.

This interview has been edited for clarity.

NO ESCAPE: [Asks for introductions]

ROBIN:  I’m Robin (she/her) and I’m on the steering committee for Game Workers of Southern California. I’ve been involved for about four years now, since the early game Workers Unite days [and] the GDC breakouts in 2018. I’m also a CWA member. Last July, my coworkers and I at Tender Claws successfully unionized. So we’re currently in the bargaining process.

BRIAN: I’m Brian (he/him). I have been in Game Workers Unite since 2019. And as that org evolved into Game Workers of SoCal I’ve involved as their communication person. I’ve been part of a union campaign in the past. I’m currently not employed. I suffered from the layoffs in our industry this year.

JULIE: Hi, I’m Julie (she/her). I’m also on the steering committee and I guess it’s my second year now. Second-ish year. Yeah, it’s been a great time. I originally was also part of an organizing campaign, but I had to leave, just due to safety reasons and now I’m working at an education game studio that I’m trying to one day revive.

JESSICA: Hey, I’m Jessica Gonzalez, I am an organizer with CWA, specifically organizing Game Workers Alliance, which formed in Madison, WI and has now just certified a new unit in Albany, NY. I started mostly as an activist with A Better ABK, which is an employee advocacy group for Activision Blizzard King employees; I worked on walkouts, open letters, things like that. Um, but also helping with Game Workers of SoCal.

ROLAND: My name’s Roland (he/him). I am also on the steering committee for Game Workers of Southern California, and along with Robin, I’ve been with the org since around 2018. I went to the second or third meeting that Game Workers United LA had. In the years since, I’ve been on the steering committee for as long as it existed, so I’ve seen how the movement has evolved since 2018. I haven’t had a really active campaign in those years, but I’ve been trying to do the best I can to support those that have.

NO ESCAPE: You mentioned the connection to Game Workers Unite. This group sprung out of Game Workers Unite?

ROBIN: Yeah, correct. Back in, I want to say late 2020, we spun off. We started off as the Los Angeles chapter of Game Workers Unite and found that we were already operating mostly independently. So in late 2020, we split off into an independent group, but still maintained really friendly relations with the other Game Workers Unite chapters.

ROLAND: Yeah. And in that time we also merged with the Orange County chapter of Game Workers Unite, which was a separate chapter at the time. So we did merge memberships and became SoCal.

NO ESCAPE: To give some context to what occurred [at the Game Awards], what have been your past actions? What’s your history as Game Workers of Southern California organizing within the game industry there?

ROBIN: That’s a great question. Game Workers of SoCal have gone through, I think, four different iterations of types of work. I kind of see us as a watering hole between different labor organizers in the Southern California industry and beyond at this point. In the early days, back when we were part of Game Workers Unite, we ran a lot of trainings on the organizer training program which I think ended up reaching hundreds of people. And yeah. Lot of pamphleting, rallies, some public socials back in the pre-COVID times. And then right around the time that, CODE-CWA got spun up about two years into our life cycle, it was this wonderful thing of, oh shit, now they have their own trainings.

A lot of the work that we were doing started to be performed by professional unions, which is really fantastic. More lately we’ve focused on the social aspect, being a group of people from very different workplaces who meet, and we have these monthly solidarity nights where we’ll sit down and talk about what’s going on at work.

And for me it’s been a really invaluable resource just to keep going and get some new perspectives on my own organizing. So that’s mostly us. And then every now and then, and probably increasingly frequently, as it gets a little bit safer, we’ll do some public actions, including the Game Awards, which we did both this year as well as last year.

ROLAND: Yeah, we’ve never, as GWU-LA or as GWSC, we’ve never been explicitly a union. We’ve always been that sort of in-between place, between people who are wanting to learn more about unionization, who wanted to start a campaign within their own workplace, and then those shop campaigns being an effort that grows out of it.

Yeah. So like we’ve been for like people who don’t have active campaigns, people who are between jobs, people who are still in school, people outside the industry who want to help because they’re fans of games and just want to see them made with less blood involved.

And as we go on, it’s been kinda interesting to sort of redefine ourselves as the movement evolves, with more actual unions in the industry, which is great. We have to shift where GWSC’s focus itself is. And as time has gone on, it feels like, yeah, we’re focusing on the social aspect, and the community building of labor-minded individuals in the industry, but also it seems like we have our eyes more on direct actions and building solidarity outside the industry as well.

JULIE: And I wanted to add in: when I was organizing, I had a lot of questions, because I was always wondering, like, how can I connect with other studios that are also organizing? And then sometimes I would run into personal issues that deal with organizing and I just wanted to have someone to bounce off with.

So what Robin and Roland have mentioned, Solidarity Night, was a great time for me to join, because I got to understand and meet other people who are also having campaigns. And then through that we were able to come up and brainstorm with different ideas. And then of course if you’re gonna have a bunch of people who are organizing, you’re gonna know other organizers.

So that’s how like Stripper [Strike] from Star Garden gets involved and then we all just started to work together. All of us have different skills. Like Roland’s really good at art, and Robin’s really good at writing articles, and Brian’s really good at bringing buttons, so we all just started to figure out like, okay, we all have these different skills. How can we all utilize those skills and move forward to what we believe in?

JESSICA: Yeah, the first kind of interaction I had with Game Workers of SoCal was when I was kind of in the dark, yelling in the void on Twitter, trying to get my movement going with ABK, which is such a huge company. And it was during a time of insane headlines. Like there was a new lawsuit, [a new] bombshell article every day and I was wanting the help, so they were connected right away, spreading the message, retweeting everything, just helping me out. And then, you know, getting me into training. I went with CODE-CWA, but it’s still like the resource, and the ability to amplify the movement and help was really amazing. And yeah, I think that Game Workers of SoCal is really good at that. Also, just like making sure that people are getting information on those direct actions.

NO ESCAPE: We love hearing about all this history, and we’ve been following Game Workers Unite and the general push towards unionization for a hot minute, so it’s really cool to see how all of that is being put together. 

With that, we come to Thursday last week. We had not heard about this action until afterwards, and we’re pretty upset about that because it sounds like it was kind of a rip-roaring time that y’all had. Talk a little bit about it. What happened? 

ROBIN: Yeah, high level. We’ve done this both last year and this year where the Game Awards take place in Downtown Los Angeles. Pretty close for a lot of us. We basically came up with the thinking that if the Game Awards is gonna be this end-of-the-year celebration for everything accomplished in the games industry, then we can’t leave out the labor achievements of that year.

It’s been— I mean, as I like to say, every year since 2018 has been the most significant year for games industry organizing. We keep on breaking the records. For instance, when we did the Game Awards action last year there had been some really significant walkouts, there had been the strike with Raven employees, but there hadn’t been any successful unionization drives yet.

Go back to this year, and I think there’s been six (union drives) in North America so far. And that’s something that people don’t— you know, I mean, again, Geoff Keighley’s not gonna come up on the stage and be like, “Hey, great job everyone for unionizing.” It’s not what that event is for. So our goal behind [our action] is essentially go out, get out the word, make sure that people are remembering this aspect as well. We call the action the Game Worker Awards. And in our pamphlets we have this collection of some of the major unionization victories, themed after an award show.

ROLAND: Speaking of how many successful campaigns have been started this year, it was a struggle to make that pamphlet and fitting all of them in to one trifold page.

ROBIN: Yeah. We were like, oh, we have our list now. And then it’s like, okay, 300 QA workers, at Zenimax are unionizing. 

BRIAN: Yeah, it’s wild.

JESSICA: Yep. Yeah, like stop unionizing, we need to reprint every time [laughs]. But yeah, it has been amazing to see. For sure. 

We were also received really well. I remember CWA did like a presence at GDC this year and we were received well, but like, by the Game Awards, I feel like a good percentage of the crowd knew why we were there already, which is really awesome. And then, getting to like, “oh this is exciting, can I have a pin?” And the pin said “Labor creates games,” and they were really excited to wear them inside. And we had other unions like SAG-AFTRA; an actor walked up to me and was like, “This is great what y’all are doing. I’m with SAG.” We took a photo together. It was great. So the solidarity across the industry, plus even other labor unions were like really excited to see us there.

JULIE: Yeah. I also wanna add, like, this is like our second year of doing it, which is already a huge improvement from last year. Um, Brian, like he actually got contact with a lawyer, so we were a lot more prepared this year.

BRIAN: Yeah, so Jess mentioned a positive reception. I think it should be specified that that was by the attendees. Yeah, every attendee I talked to was super stoked about, you know, I was surprised at, honestly, how many people were like, “Yeah, of course I’ll wear the pin.” 

ROBIN: My favorite story is: I was passing out pamphlets and somebody politely declined with like a “no thank you,” avoid-eye-contact thing, and then two minutes later the same person comes back, “Oh wait, this is a union thing. I very much want a pin.” 

NO ESCAPE: Amazing.

BRIAN: Yeah. I don’t know entirely when unions became cool, but I’d like to think we are at least some part of that. And so we were more prepared this year. We went last year, and we did get moved by private security and management, they were very intimidating – 

ROBIN: Yeah.

BRIAN: – and very discouraging about us being there, even though we believed we should be allowed to be there. This year we had confirmed quite clearly from a labor lawyer who provided some pro bono expertise to guide us through; we told them what our plan was and asked them about the legality, and they’re like, “Oh yeah, you totally have the right to peacefully demonstrate here.”

That said, it doesn’t stop the venue, the private security and LAPD from intimidating us. I mean, they definitely wanted us gone. They did not like us being out front. They wanted us to move. They, kept coming back to us to say that we have to move. They kept on escalating, they brought over LAPD to tell us to move, LAPD did not really- they were not really interested in protecting our right to be there and to demonstrate. They were more concerned about incorrectly protecting the private property rights of this venue, which, I mean, again, they didn’t have rights to moving us. The venue at some point offered to make us a free speech zone, um, which I told them, sure, make it and we’ll look at it and see. I mean, it better not be somewhere far aflung. They then proceeded to assemble the free speech zone – 

ROBIN: Out in Siberia.

BRIAN: – out in Siberia, like, yeah. 

JESSICA: Yeah, we’re like, nope. Thanks, though.

BRIAN: They told me it was ready. I went to go look at it, laughed and said, no, we’re going to be fine where we are, and then walked away, um, and took our lawyer’s advice: at a certain point we can just ignore them, which was the right move at that point. I think in the last half hour, probably the highest tier of the theater management came out and told us that since we were peacefully demonstrating and we weren’t blocking exits, that we were allowed to stay there. 

ROBIN: Just don’t block the entrances, please. As if that had been his only concern the whole time.

JESSICA: Also, they had like Diablo Cultists walking around. So like if you’re gonna put us in the free speech zone, like they’re not necessarily talking, but they’re also congregating and not going inside, right, so like…?

ROLAND: They set up the free speech zone directly across from the cultists’ booth, so you would have this Diablo display and right across from it, free speech zone, and not even the cultists were using it.

JESSICA: It was beautiful. Yeah, nobody used it. It was just kind of a meme after that. Yeah. It’s funny.

BRIAN: No, it was empty the entire time.

NO ESCAPE: The free speech zone photo was absolutely incredible. 

JESSICA: It encapsulated the feeling of that area very well.

NO ESCAPE: We had flashbacks to 2008 and the Republican National Convention. Like, are we really – is video games just repeating that history? What is happening? 

JESSICA: Yes. 

ROBIN: Yeah, they had it on hand too. Like they set the stuff up within like 45 minutes of seeing us, so they must have some warehouse where it lives.

ROLAND: Yeah. Is this like standard procedure since Bush? Like do they just have—

BRIAN: Yeah, it’s funny too, because despite having the signs ready, they don’t have the policy on their website about this. So, you know, they were giving us a hard time, but I was like, “Listen, you don’t have any guidelines about how demonstrators – not that they can necessarily put any sort of restrictions on a demonstration, but like, they acted like they were doing us a big favor by making the zone, when really they just want to sideline our message and our focus on the work.

JESSICA: Undermine it, yeah.

JULIE: Yeah. I do wanna mention that the attendees also did notice how security was towards us, and they did check up on our wellbeing and they, they were definitely keeping an eye out too, so the crowds were also watching as well. And that did give me an opportunity to talk to a bunch of families and parents and kids too, because some of them, some of these kids didn’t even really know what a union was. They were just like, oh, Blizzard, I heard something about a walkout. And then it was like an opportunity for me to talk to them and explain what it was and how I’m a game dev. And that was really nice to hear. And parents were listening in, and I’m a I’m a woman of color, so a lot of these kids were also kids of color that want to be in the industry one day! So that was a very nice emotional moment for me to make an impact as well. 

NO ESCAPE: That is incredibly cool. It’s really heartening to hear that attendees were not only receptive, but came back to check on you and came back to see how you were doing. Because we heard a lot about like, how, inside security was having people take off pins and such, so they couldn’t show up on camera with “Labor creates games,” but the fact that they were coming back out and being like, “Hey, is everything good? Are y’all good?” That’s really cool. So it sounds like a pretty successful action. You also had some solidarity guests. You had Stripper Strike of North Hollywood show up. We saw, looking through Twitter, y’all have a relationship with them. What’s the story there? Because that’s fantastic. That’s really cool.

BRIAN: Yeah. Stripper Strike NoHo is kind of like our ride or die, our fellow union siblings. It started back in, I believe it was March or April. We found out that some strippers were out front of their club, and basically they’d gotten locked out after delivering a safety petition to their employer listing a number of concerns including personal safety.

Customers would be allowed to stay after hours while the dancers were settling their paychecks in their normal street clothes and just, you know, very inappropriate to have customers in that area. And also [there were] concerns about customers recording them without their consent while they’re on stage. And also the stage itself was just broken. There’s a hole in it. So they delivered this petition. Their employer said, “Okay, yeah, we can talk about it,” and then locked them all out. 

So it was about I think 18 or so dancers, and we found them, and we showed up. It was a really sparse line at first. And so we felt a real need to be there as often as we could. We ended up going there at least once a week. And we helped them out with signs, we helped with fundraising. They had these really creative, I mean, basically strip shows where they did fundraisers where you’d throw the dollar bills at ’em, like you were in a strip club, but it was for union dancers and they would split the pot evenly, and it kept them going while they were out on strike. Eventually that lockout turned into a union campaign and that is still in the process. They’ve gotten some good news from the National Labor Relations Board where it seems like they’re owed back wages, which is huge. And that’s sort of a path towards a return to work and a union certification for them, which is exciting. 

ROBIN: Yeah. To add a little bit. I definitely think I’m proud of what we’ve done to support them just being on the line, the signs and the fundraising. That’s also been reciprocated too. I think a couple of them came out to the anniversary of the ABK walkouts.

JESSICA: They did. Yep. They were outside of Blizzard Entertainment in Irvine, which was amazing to see them there and they are literally what’s solidarity encapsulates. Their whole thing is they’ve just been through all of our campaigns, so we show up for them as we can, and yeah, we follow their campaign and they’re always there for ours.

ROBIN: It’s really wonderful, yeah. One of the dancers, Velveeta, helped the Tender Claws Union do some screen printing, which was sort of this complicated process that they walked us through. And then there was this event [the Game Workers Awards]. So it’s been a really wonderful friendship.

JESSICA: Yeah, we’ve learned a lot from their campaign, honestly, like the ABK campaign, we’ve learned a lot just from how they do their, you know, fundraising and like, just everything. They’re so organized and yeah, it’s great to see. Yeah.

BRIAN: I learned how to talk to cops from their campaign. 

JESSICA: Yeah. Learned how to talk to cops [laughs]. Yeah.

BRIAN: Yeah, Velveeta got arrested at one point on their picket. So I think seeing them gave me a lot more bravery when it came to this year at the Game Awards where unlike last year, we were like, we’re not gonna let ourselves get bullied. We have a right to be here. I felt an immense amount of safety with [Stripper Strike NoHo] bolstering up our numbers. Yeah. 

ROBIN: It was huge that they came out. I think you can look at it and say like, that’s pretty random. Some of these people are making video games behind a keyboard, some of them are dancing on a stage, but there’s actually a lot more in common. I mean, for one thing, we’re all organizing around harassment and unsafe workplaces, right? 

JESSICA: Yep.

ROBIN: It manifests in different forms, but it’s a similar type of issue. You know, there’s issues with wage theft in the games industry as well as at this club. So yeah, it’s been a really wonderful match. And game developers can be a little bit shy, so they’ve been like a really good example of like, how do you run a picket line.

JULIE: Yeah. I will say, having them on a brochure, people did ask that quite a bit. Like there were some people who were like, what are these studios? And the sudden when they saw the stripper on it, they’re like, “Wait a minute. I know that!” I’m like, cool. There they are right there [laughs]. And then suddenly people were more open to listen and understand a bit more, which I thought was really cool, and I was very, very thankful for them to be out there.

ROLAND: Yeah. Yeah. And like not to undermine the point of ours, of having a lot in common… They’re so cool. And I’m always a little nervous when they show up to our stuff because like, we’re nerds. We work in games.

JESSICA: We all make entertainment.

BRIAN: I think to encapsulate Roland’s concern, uh, there was a point which they had a slip and slide on their picket; absolutely lit.

JESSICA: They did have a slip-n-slide. I was there for that one, it was wonderful. They also had a LAPD helicopter fly overhead, which was interesting. They are the labor movement. Like just, when I think of the labor movement, I think of Stripper Strike NoHo.

BRIAN: They’re bringing a lot of creativity and other unions and workers should listen up.

JESSICA: Agreed.

ROLAND: Yeah, I feel like it has changed my image of what a picket ought to look like.

NO ESCAPE: Yeah, for sure. It reminds us a lot of the eclectic nature of the IWW (Industrial Workers of the World), the way they organize around every particular type of job. And so it’s really cool that that’s replicating in this way. 

We wanted to ask about the media response. We know you all got some local coverage. What has the media response been like to this action?

ROBIN: That’s a great question. Yeah, I think we definitely got some good coverage from Knock LA, who posted just a wonderful Twitter thread about everything that was going on. And then, um, in terms of actual coverage, it’s been interesting. I think certain elements were kind of more latched onto versus coverage of the whole protest.

Um, the tweet about somebody’s union pin being removed by security went viral. It was funny, at some point I searched, like, “Game Awards Union” on Twitter and it was just stacks and stacks of the same tweet of like, “I can’t believe Game Awards security is letting just anybody onstage, but they’re stealing union pins.” Everyone had a take. 

In terms of actual, like, “hey, there was a protest at the Game Awards,” I think it’s probably a little bit under-covered. It’s a little bit what happens when you’re competing with, you know, major game announcements and some yahoo who wants to go up on the stage and say some bizarre nonsense. But we were really happy, I think, with the on-the-ground response, just through the vibe speaking with the actual attendees.

ROLAND: Yeah, I would’ve loved if we had gotten more attention for the acceptance of our action, but it’s like I never expected to be a part of this particular narrative, and it is a pretty illustrative narrative.

JULIE: I’ve been having a great time telling people how this happened [laughs].

JESSICA: Yeah, same. A lot of people also focus on the free speech zone as like a meme in itself. Like, “oh, the unions tried to get intimidated into the free speech zone.” It’s a narrative I’m seeing a lot of online too.

BRIAN: I think another thing that we talk about, sort of the media effect and our effect of reaching out, I think another reason we as Game Workers of SoCal do actions like this is also to get ourselves comfortable with doing direct actions. I mean, none of the game workers there had been on any prolonged strike, we’ve had, some people have been part of walkouts, but I think getting comfortable with the cops showing up and you not being on the right side in their eyes is an important lesson. I mean, it certainly taught me a lot. That was definitely a success in our book too.

ROLAND: Yeah, and it was nice having last year as a barometer to just see how much we’ve grown. We had at least a month to prepare for this one. Last year it was four days, which was awesome, but also—

ROBIN: We had six people, versus I think 18 or 19 this year.

JULIE: Yeah, I definitely got to have way more meaningful conversations with attendees this year, and I felt safer. So that felt good, yeah.

JESSICA: Mm-hmm. Me too. I felt comfortable.

NO ESCAPE: Nice. Last question: What are y’all looking to do in 2023?

JESSICA: All the unions. Unionize every last part of the industry. No stone unturned. All labor would be organizing. That’s my goal anyway.

ROLAND: I don’t know what a game worker picket will look like in the age of remote work, but if we can make it as cool as a stripper picket or at least like a fraction as cool, I wanna see that.

JESSICA: LAN party or we could do a Twitch stream.

BRIAN: I’d like to get involved in a union campaign again at my next employment. That’s one of my goals. And I would like to have the people I meet there meet the rest of Game Workers of SoCal and learn what we’ve learned. 

ROBIN: Loving this New Year’s Resolution format. Um, definitely for me, getting through the whole bargaining process for the Tender Claws Union and getting a union contract for the workplace. I’m excited about it, kind of both for my coworkers and I hope that we can get something of a high bar of quality that can be used as reference for, I’ll just say the many other union campaigns that go public in 2023, because I’m very optimistic. We went from zero to six, so let’s keep going.

JULIE: I guess for me, I hope – if I don’t get laid off [laughs] – I hope that my coworkers and I can continue doing and maybe get it public eventually. But so far we’ve been learning a lot about solidarity and working together, which helps a lot for my confidence in us. So that’s my goal.

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