News

Amid Game Industry Layoffs, AFL-CIO Says It’s Time for Workers to Organize

On Feb. 15, just days after massive layoffs at Activision Blizzard, the AFL-CIO issued a powerful public statement of support to game developers in the United States. Its message, published in an open letter at Kotaku, was both simple and profound.

Now That Government is Funded, Here is What Workers Want to see

Last year, in communities all across the country, millions of Americans mobilized and called for an economy that works for all of us.

Number of Workers Striking in 2018 the Most in Three Decades

More workers were involved in strikes and other labor disputes in 2018 than at any point in the past three decades, fueled by widespread teacher protests last spring, according to data releas

The U.S. Postal Service is Owned by the People—Let's Keep It That Way

As the tax deadline looms and millions scurry to get their forms sent on time, Tax Day is a good time to dispel the myth that the U.S. Postal Service is funded by tax dollars.

As Video Games Make Billions, the Workers Behind Them Say It’s Time to Unionize

At an industry conference for video game developers in late March, the thousands of lanyarded attendees could try new games, swap business cards and hear from experts on rendering realistic blood spatter.

Or they could talk about unionizing.

Hundreds joined a series of standing-room-only roundtables on the topic of organized labor, taking time away from the Game Developers Conference to brainstorm ways to build worker power in an industry that is almost entirely nonunion.

You Paid Taxes. These Corporations Didn't

Taxpayers are scrambling to make last-minute payments due to the Internal Revenue Service in just four days, but many of the country’s largest publicly-held corporations are doing better: They’ve reported they owe absolutely nothing on the billions of dollars in profits they earned last year.

Women Can Close the Pay Gap by Forming Unions

In 2018, women once again came home with over 16% less money in their paychecks. Tuesday is Equal Pay Day, which means women had to work until April 2—92 days longer—to be paid the same amount as a comparable man in 2018.

Pelosi Demands Changes to Trump’s Trade Deal with Mexico, Canada

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi suggested Tuesday that President Trump must reopen talks with Canada and Mexico to tighten enforcement provisions in a proposed North American trade deal, casting renewed doubt on prospects for congressional ratification of the accord.

Unions Stole The Show At Last Night's GDC Awards

“I’m not anti-union, but I don’t really think we need them, right?” said Double Fine head Tim Schafer while hosting yesterday evening’s Game Developers Choice Awards in San Francisco. “We’re all great here and in this show. No one here is union and...” Then the stage lights went out.

“Oh, right,” said Schafer after the lights went out. “Except for the lighting crew. I forgot they’re all union.”

Trump Is Scaling Back Obama's Expansion of Overtime Pay

A four-year fight to expand overtime pay to millions of workers may soon be over. About 1.2 million workers will win and 2.8 million will lose.

The Department of Labor is scaling back an Obama-era rule that would have doubled the maximum salary for a worker to qualify for overtime pay, according to a proposed rule the agency sent to the Office of the Federal Register for public review.

AFL-CIO Leaders Say Unions Have a Role In Saving the Country

In speeches and in press releases over the last year, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka has pointed out that unions are uniquely qualified by their very nature to lead the country out of what he has called a “dark period,” a time when hateful speech and vitriol emanate from the White House and are found in abundance everywhere else. Unions, he notes, bring together all kinds of people in a fight that is common to the vast majority, a fight for a better life for oneself and for the next generation.