United Videogame Workers (UVW), in conjunction with the Communication Works of America (CWA) and the American Federation of Musicians (AFM) have announced the first ever industry-wide, direct-join union in North America. The UVW-CWA Local 9433 was revealed during Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2025 in San Francisco, California.
As a direct-join union, anyone working in the video game industry in both the United States and Canada can join. That includes artists, developers, QA tester, and more whether they are freelance or full time. It also doesn’t matter how many people from their specific company have joined.
“The creation of this union was not done in isolation; it’s a cumulative effort by the thousands of video game workers who have been fighting for years to redefine what it means to stand together and reclaim power in one of the largest and highest-grossing industries on the globe,” said CWA’s Senior Director of Organizing Tom Smith via press release. “These workers are taking a bold stand, joining together to build power for the workers behind the games we all know and love.”
CWA President Claude Cummings Jr. added: “As video game studios have consolidated, the workers whose creativity, dedication, and skill bring the games to life have become more an afterthought. They are subject to endless cycles of layoffs and rehiring as corporate executives pursue short-term profits at the expense of a sustainable future.”
The press release adds that as part of the union’s launch, its members will be running a petition “demanding dignity and job security for all video game workers, particularly those facing layoffs.” They will also have a large presence around GDC 2025, including panels and other events.
The unions mission statement reads:
Our mission is to take back our lives, our labor, and our passion from those who treat us like replaceable cogs; to empower our fellow workers; to link up arms with the laid off, with the freelancer, with the disillusioned contractor, with the disenfranchised and the marginalized, with the workers laboring invisibly to keep this industry afloat. We are going to create a game industry that works for us, one that nourishes its talent and invests in its future, rather than constantly seeking short-term profits. We are the ones that make the games, so we must be the ones that set the terms of how we work.
As of publishing, there have been a known 1,493 jobs lost due to layoffs in 2025 across 47 companies. This comes after an estimated 16,000 people lost their jobs in 2024.
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