Game Workers Union Proposes Bill of Rights at GDC, Affecting Nintendo Staff

Carrying red banners reading "We're stronger together," members of United Videogame Workers-CWA rode down an escalator inside the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco last week, chanting "Videogames are corporate made" and "We will put your game on pause" as they marched through the Moscone Center. The demonstration, which mirrored a similar action at GDC the previous year, was the most visible moment of a broader organizing push the union unveiled during the March 9-13 GDC Festival of Gaming.

At the heart of that push was a draft "Game Workers' Bill of Rights," which UVW organizers shared at the conference alongside a campaign demanding immigration enforcement protections for workers in the United States. The proposed framework aims to establish a baseline standard of working conditions across the entire industry, covering protections against artificial intelligence displacing workers, shielding employees from Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions, and setting standardized labor-hour limits. The union's website lists additional advocacy priorities including advance layoff notices, better severance packages, and improved insurance coverage.

The demonstration put UVW in the same space as members of the more studio-specific ZeniMax and Blizzard unions, who joined in hosting an event examining the current state of labor organizing across the industry. A GDC panel titled "Fight and Ye Shall Receive: How CWA's Game Worker Union Campaigns Are Changing the Industry" brought together organizers from multiple CWA locals, including Josiah Clark from Blizzard Entertainment and CWA Local 9510, Juniper Dowell from Bethesda Softworks and CWA Local 2108, Vee Nguyen from SEGA of America and CWA Local 9510, Alex Speidel from Paizo and CWA Local 7800, and Carolyn Jong representing United Videogame Workers under CWA Local 9433.

UVW-CWA, which was established in March 2025, reported 550 members as of the close of GDC. The union operates as a direct-join organization affiliated with the Communications Workers of America and is open to video game workers based anywhere in the United States or Canada, meaning Nintendo's American workforce is within its eligibility scope.

Alongside the Bill of Rights campaign, UVW announced the launch of the Game Workers Conference, a separate event the union has pledged to run "by workers, for workers." Organized in partnership with other unions and worker-centered organizations, the conference will be hosted online and made freely accessible, with the announcement coming during the GDC Festival of Gaming on March 11.

Nintendo has not commented publicly on the UVW campaign or the proposed Bill of Rights. The company has no unionized workers in North America, and none of the source materials from the GDC action named Nintendo or any of its employees specifically. Whether the industry-wide standards UVW is drafting gain traction with lawmakers or through collective bargaining at other studios will determine how directly Nintendo's workforce eventually feels their pressure.