Motion-capture workers at the prominent video game company behind NBA 2K and WWE 2K have voted to unionize with Hollywood crew union IATSE.
Fifteen workers at 2K’s motion capture studio in Petaluma, California voted to unionize with IATSE in a National Labor Relations Board election that took place on Friday morning, while six voted against unionizing. All 21 workers — including stage technicians, engineers, animators and recording and audio specialists — that are in the proposed bargaining unit at the gaming studio took part in the vote.
As long as no objections are filed within the next five days, the results of the representation election will be certified.
IATSE, which has been attempting to organize the video game industry for years, went public with its union drive at 2K on Oct. 23 as it filed for an NLRB election. The union positioned this organizing effort as historic, calling it the “first public union campaign at a motion capture studio.” The union stated at the time that the company did not respond to the labor group’s request to voluntarily recognize the union.
A 2K spokesperson appeared to confirm this account, saying the company respected the rights of employees to choose whether or not to unionize through “informed voting.” “We feel that we are best served addressing these challenges and changing needs together through our existing feedback channels rather than through a union,” the spokesperson added, but the company welcomed the dialogue that would arrive as a result of the union vote.
According to IATSE, organizing 2K workers sought higher wages, greater job security and more clarity on the job responsibilities associated with particular job titles. In October the union stated that the group was additionally looking to improve working conditions.
One of the organizing workers, 2K stage technician Connor Bredbeck, said in a statement in October that while working at 2K is a “dream come true,” the “inequities we are experiencing are endemic to the gaming industry and detract from the work we are all so passionate about.”
More to come.
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