United WOTC officially elected in a NLRB vote count
The MTG: Arena team is now full of card-carrying union members.
After just about three months since one team of workers at Wizards of the Coast officially announced their intent to unionize, the United Wizards of the Coast — CWA union has been officially elected following a two-week voting period. This follows a year-long organization effort within WotC before the announcement. While there is no forthcoming details on percentage or vote counts, the public support for the union is incredibly strong online, especially on social media, where people’s reactions to the bluesky announcement are overwhelmingly — if not entirely — celebratory.
United Wizards of the Coast - CWA
The union’s full statement was:
Today is a momentous day for the workers of Arena! After months of planning, waiting and organizing, our dream is finally a reality; the votes have been counted, and our union of UWOTC-CWA has been officially elected.
From this day forward, we have a union!
To the thousands who signed our petition letter, the journalists who let us tell our own story, every person who reached out with words of encouragement, our stewards at the CWA who helped guide us, we cannot thank you enough for your support.
We stand on the shoulders of giants, and we can only hope that our victory in turn inspires others to start unionizing at their own workplaces. Change is possible when workers stand together!
We hope to share good news of a ratified contract with all of you soon.
As stated in our previous reporting, this labor action was driven by a plethora of reasons, but largely because of a disintegrating trust between the management and the workers of UWOTC. A lack of layoff protections, growing AI concerns, a return-to-office mandate, and failures of communication encouraged the people working at Wizards of the Coast to collaborate with the Communication Workers of America — the largest communication and labor union in the united states — to form the first union in the company’s history.
In late May, Rascal reported on the actions that the company had taken to discourage the formation of the union ahead of the vote, including “optional” meetings, letters sent home, and a “daily” email campaign to Magic the Gathering: Arena employees. On the bluesky thread, UWOTC thanked both the new union members, journalists (like those at Aftermath and here at Rascal), and the supporters who signed letters to management. All of it helped the team fight back against the anti-union practices of the company.
With the election results in hand, the union is in a place to start bargaining with the company. Whether or not the company does that in good faith, or expediently, isn’t guaranteed. Wizard of the Coast has previously retained the use of Pinkertons for asset recovery, and while we don’t know whether or not they will hire a law firm to negotiate with the union, it’s doubtful that they will rely on in-house counsel for this.
Regardless, UWOTC is here, and the workers — and their supporters — are celebrating. The workers are also open to welcoming other parts of the company into the warm embrace of worker solidarity. Arena today, maybe Dungeons & Dragons tomorrow. After all, it’s dangerous to go alone.
