The workers at Wizards of the Coast are teaming up

The workers behind Dungeons & Dragons and Magic: The Gathering (Studio X) have announced they are unionizing as part of United Wizards of the Coast-CWA. According to the worker’s statement, “We have achieved a public supermajority of employees committed to our cause and are offering the opportunity for Wizards of the Coast (WOTC) and Hasbro to demonstrate their stated values by voluntarily recognizing our union.” They join the team on Magic the Gathering: Arena at the same union. 

Of course this would happen when Chase, our on-call labor reporter, goes to the single U.K. stop on Orville Peck’s album tour and is unable to follow up on his previous reporting on United Wizards of the Coast. Although the union drive was successful, it was not without barriers imposed by WotC and Hasbro. The tactics the multi-billion-dollar companies used included “optional” meetings, letters home, and even last-minute voting location changes, according to some employees. 

The teams have filed an election petition with the National Labor Relations Board to safeguard their right to vote on a union, but have said that if WotC agrees to voluntarily recognize the union by Tuesday, October 13 — one week from this announcement — they will withdraw the notice. Considering the past response and Wizards of the Coasts’ previous ties to anti-union companies, such as the legal firm of Fisher Phillips and the Pinkertons, it’s doubtful that they will choose to honor the requests of the workers. 

Both letters list out similar concerns; layoffs, AI encroachment, crunch times, remote work, and career paths — all obvious issues, and many of which were echoed by the MTG:A team. But further down there’s a specific call to action that also appears in both letters: the right to own work made off the clock. The D&D letter states, “Currently, if an employee makes anything creative in their free time, with their own resources, Hasbro can claim ownership. What we do in our free time should not be dictated by the company, and what we make in our free time should belong to us.“

It seems that WotC’s commitment to open-source systems, as established first by the OGL in 2000 and then re-established when a portion of the game (via the Systems Reference Document) was submitted into the public domain in 2023, doesn’t apply to its own house. And with the recent spate of hires from the indie RPG scene, it seems apparent that many people working within the most well-known gaming company in the world would have their own ideas for games and, allegedly, no way to publish or produce those games without Hasbro claiming ownership.

UWOTC (the workers that develop, produce, and maintain the fanbase for Magic: the Gathering Arena, Dungeons & Dragons, and Studio X) have asked that supporters sign this digital letter which requests that Hasbro/WotC voluntarily recognize the union. 

The Dungeons & Dragons team stated “We believe that unionizing will increase staff-well being and retention, promote transparency, ensure equity, and create the healthy environment needed to continue making exceptional products. We know the workers that make the game can and should be treated better, and our aim is to show that to the world through our union efforts. We are building the game industry we want to see in the world.”

The Studio X team wrote, “We are the ones who create the worlds, mechanics, packaging, print files, and more. We are stewards of our games, nurturers of families and communities, and individual human beings who deserve to be treated with all the respect and dignity that entails.”

This union is partnering with Communication Workers of America Union (CWA), the same sponsor as the Magic The Gathering: Arena team when they first began their unionization drive. It’s a huge victory for the teams that not only support the most lucrative parts of Wizards of the Coast but also steward and create the most impressive cultural cachet in tabletop roleplaying games. 

Last week, I wrote about how everyone owns — or wants to own — Dungeons & Dragons. Maybe, with this union drive, the workers can secure their own stake in the company, at a level that will make the C-Suite think twice before another round of Christmas layoffs happens. And hopefully, the workers will finally be able to own their work — both in and out of the workplace.