United Wizards of the Coast lambasted Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks on Bluesky, pushing back on comments the business leader made during an on-stage interview with The WBUR Breakfast Club.
“I think we’re in support of a person’s right to unionize and a person’s right to have the discussion around it and a vote around it,” said Chris Cocks, before pointing out there are “a fair number of people who don’t want to be part of the union”.
“It affects everyone. If 60 percent of the people on a team want to unionise, 100 percent of the people have to join the union and have to join collective bargaining,” he said and followed up with a defence of Wizards of the Coast’s working conditions, which he argued were better than average in the games industry. (It’s about the 16:40 minute mark in the video below.)
However, on Bluesky the United Wizards of the Coast shot back at what it considered “incorrect and clearly anti-union” statements.
The union argued that members’ wages were lower than the $140,000 average Chris Cocks claimed and said “there’s no clear path toward promotions and meaningful raises.”
Unionization efforts have provided opportunities for WotC staff to compare compensation. “We’ve seen workers with the same title with wildly different salaries, critical work going undercompensated, and stagnant career paths where members go unpromoted year after year”.
The United WotC account also pointed to Hasbro’s use of Fisher Phillips in the proceedings, which it claims is a “union avoidance” firm, as a sign that it is not in support of the right to unionize as Cocks has claimed.
“Unions are how tabletop workers ensure that we are treated with the respect that we deserve. We want to continue making the games we love. When we hold our union election, we believe we will win and take the first steps toward a better Wizards of the Coast.”
The WotC union vote is set to take place later today, on November 10.
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Source: Wargamer
