Workers on Magic: The Gathering’s Arena team have voted to form a union with the Communication Workers of America (CWA), with the count finalized yesterday, on Tuesday, June 23. The Wizards of the Coast employees responsible for Magic’s digital platform MTG Arena showed overwhelming support for the cause: the NLRB website shows that, out of a total of 102 eligible voters, 79 votes were cast in favor of unionization, versus just 16 against.
In a statement on its website, and shared to various social media platforms, the United Wizards of the Coast account revelled in the victory. “After months of planning, waiting and organizing, our dream is finally a reality… from this day forward, we have a union!”
The Wizards workers announced their unionization efforts a couple of months ago, when they filed their case with the NLRB on April 27, 2026. Chief among their complaints was a ‘return to work’ policy, which required workers (many of whom were hired as remote employees) to up sticks and move across the country to be close to WotC’s Renton, Washington offices.
Other concerns included the need for ‘strong layoff protections’ and a robust AI policy – workers described mounting pressure to adopt AI tools, despite explicitly expressing worries about their usage.
While UWOTC invited Wizards to recognise the union – bypassing the formal election process – it appears this request was declined. In May, the union website claimed that WotC and Hasbro had missed the deadline it set for voluntary recognition, necessitating a vote.
Now the vote is passed, the next stage is for the MTG Arena union to establish a ratified contract with Wizards of the Coast.
While we’ve seen several companies and groups of workers loosely associated with the TCG form unions, from individual game stores to TCGPlayer, this is the first time we’ve seen workers organize like this from within Wizards of the Coast itself.
In its statement, UWOTC says “We can only hope that our victory in turn inspires others to start unionizing at their own workplaces”.
Source: Wargamer
