All posts tagged: Union

Motion Capture Workers at 2K Studio Ratify First Union Contract

Motion Capture Workers at 2K Studio Ratify First Union Contract

Published by Daniella Wilson

Motion capture workers employed by the video game company behind NBA 2K and WWE 2K have ratified their first labor contract in a move that union IATSE is calling historic. Workers at 2K’s motion capture studio in Petaluma, CA have unanimously ratified a deal with management at parent company Take-Two Interactive, IATSE announced on Tuesday. The crew union represents stage technicians, engineers, animators and recording and audio specialists at the studio. The new deal establishes wage minimums as well as annual wage increases and bonuses. The contract additionally enshrines work-from-home and leave policies, staffing and subcontracting language and “an enforceable promotions framework,” IATSE stated. The contract also creates guardrails for the use of scanned likeness and artificial intelligence. IATSE international president Matthew Loeb said in a statement that the deal “shows what workers can achieve when they stand together and bargain for the future of their craft.” Loeb added, “These workers made history when they organized, and they have made history again by ratifying the first union contract for motion capture video game workers in …

Video Game Developer Heart Machine Voluntarily Recognizes Union

Video Game Developer Heart Machine Voluntarily Recognizes Union

Published by Daniella Wilson

The indie video game studio Heart Machine has voluntarily recognized a union formed by staff members. The developer behind 2021’s Solar Ash and 2016’s Hyper Light Drifter agreed to recognize a wall-to-wall union representing all non-managerial employees, the Communications Workers of America announced on Monday. Previously, the union states, a majority of the workers at the studio signaled their interest in joining CWA. Thirteen employees are included in the bargaining unit, including animators, designers, gameplay engineers, environmental artists and a gameplay tools engineer. Heart Machine is based in L.A. and the union will be under the umbrella of Burbank-based CWA Local 9003. “I decided to get involved in organizing my studio because I’ve seen so many peers in the industry stand up to protect the craft we all care so deeply about. Watching that momentum grow made me realize that if we love this work, we have to protect it, especially now,” said gameplay tools engineer Steph Aligbe in a statement. “Our union is proud that our studio chose to voluntarily recognize our union and …

Guggenheim Union Rallies Outside Carol Bove Reception for Contract

Guggenheim Union Rallies Outside Carol Bove Reception for Contract

Published by José Betancourt

On Wednesday in Manhattan, VIP guests trickled into the Guggenheim Museum to celebrate its buzzy Carol Bove show, while outside, its unionized staff—conservators, archivists, educators, front-facing staff, and others—rallied for a second contract that the group hopes will be more robust.   The Guggenheim staff, who voted to join UAW Local 2110 in 2023 after more than two years of negotiations with management, are back at the bargaining table under renewed urgency. Last year, the museum cut 20 jobs—7 percent of its staff—across multiple departments, marking its third round of layoffs in five years.  Related Articles At the time, museum leadership cited an “overall financial picture” that “is not where it needs to be” as the reason for the job cuts, which were framed as part of a broader “reorganization.” The museum’s union said it had not been given advance notice of the layoffs. In February 2025, a grievance was filed against the museum, and contract negotiations have since positioned job security as a top priority.  Anton Sherin, an archivist at the Guggenheim since 2009, told ARTnews, “I’m a …

Tesla successfully scared Giga Berlin workers away from union

Tesla successfully scared Giga Berlin workers away from union

Published by skeptic

IG Metall’s vote share at Tesla’s Gigafactory Berlin decreased from 39.4% to just 31.1% in the works council election that concluded today, a devastating 8-percentage-point drop that came after weeks of threats, police involvement, and a direct warning from Elon Musk that expansion would stop if the union gained influence. The management-aligned “Giga United” list won 40.4% of the vote, securing a commanding lead over the union and ensuring that Germany’s only non-union auto plant stays that way. The results Roughly 10,700 workers at Tesla’s Grünheide plant voted over three days from March 2–4, with 87% turnout — down 6 percentage points from the 2024 election. The council was reduced from 39 seats to 37, reflecting the factory’s shrinking workforce. IG Metall needed 19 of those 37 seats to take majority control. They didn’t come close. The union’s 31.1% vote share represents a sharp retreat from the 39.4% it earned in 2024, when it secured 16 of 39 seats and became the council’s largest faction. Advertisement – scroll for more content Giga United, the list …

Treasury Department Terminates Union Contracts for IRS and Bureau of the Fiscal Service Workers

Treasury Department Terminates Union Contracts for IRS and Bureau of the Fiscal Service Workers

Published by Sam Flores

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Treasury Department has terminated its collective bargaining agreement with unionized workers employed at the Internal Revenue Service, the agency said Friday, in an escalation of President Donald Trump ’s push to exert more control over the federal workforce. The union contract for the Bureau of the Fiscal Service was also terminated this week, according to two people familiar with the decision. The people spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak with the media. Workers at the IRS and the fiscal service bureau, which processes payments for the government, are represented by the National Treasury Employees Union. They were informed by agency leadership that Treasury terminated their collective bargaining agreements, using an executive order President Donald Trump signed last March as the authority for the terminations. In a letter to IRS workers Friday, viewed by The Associated Press, IRS Chief Human Capital Officer Alex Kweskin told employees the move “deepens our commitment of operating as one IRS, a collaborative team focused on serving American taxpayers.” The …

Forget the State of the Union. What’s the state of your quiz score? : NPR

Forget the State of the Union. What’s the state of your quiz score? : NPR

Published by Sam Flores

From left: Dario Amodei (Anthropic CEO), Punch (lonely monkey) and Flavor Flav (icon). Ludovic Marin/AFP via Getty Images; Jiji Press/AFP via Getty Images; Phillip Faraone/Getty Images for Raising Cane’s hide caption toggle caption Ludovic Marin/AFP via Getty Images; Jiji Press/AFP via Getty Images; Phillip Faraone/Getty Images for Raising Cane’s This week, the state of the union was stated (but not uniting) at length. If you know your State of the Union history (or read NPR’s coverage …), you’ll get at least one question right! Source link

‘Uncanny Valley’: Pentagon vs. ‘Woke’ Anthropic, Agentic vs. Mimetic, and Trump vs. State of the Union

‘Uncanny Valley’: Pentagon vs. ‘Woke’ Anthropic, Agentic vs. Mimetic, and Trump vs. State of the Union

Published by skeptic

Guys, before we go to break, there’s something very near and dear to my heart that WIRED wrote about this week. It’s something I love even more than biathlon. It is undersea internet cables. Leah Feiger: I love when you talk about this. I think that the first time you brought this up to me was approximately one week into your tenure as executive editor, and you’re like, “Leah, do you know what I love?” and it’s undersea internet cables. Brian Barrett: Yeah. I was like, “Number one, undersea internet cables. Number two, my children. Number three …” that was sort of the gist of it. That’s how I always introduce myself. I want to take everybody back to December 14th, 1988. The top movie in theaters is Twins starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito. Zoë Schiffer: Legitimately never heard of it. Leah Feiger: Wait, Zoë. What? Brian Barrett: What? Anyway, Arnold is agentic and Danny DeVito’s mimetic. The top song— Zoë Schiffer: Now I get it. Brian Barrett: —the top song is “Look Away” …

Warren calls Trump’s bluff on affordability after State of the Union

Warren calls Trump’s bluff on affordability after State of the Union

Published by Sam Flores

Ranking member Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., questions Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent during the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee hearing titled “The Financial Stability Oversight Council’s Annual Report to Congress,” in Dirksen building on Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026. Tom Williams | CQ-Roll Call, Inc. | Getty Images Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren is calling President Donald Trump’s bluff after he claimed to be “ending” the affordability crisis during his State of the Union address, opening a new front in the battle that could determine November’s midterm elections. “Your claims are directly at odds with the day-to-day experiences of American households, who are struggling with rising costs of essentials, including food, housing, health care, child care, and electricity,” Warren, D-Mass., wrote in a letter to Trump, which was shared exclusively with CNBC after being sent late Wednesday.  “Despite your claims, you have not ‘solved’ affordability or ‘defeated’ inflation. Instead, over the past year, prices have skyrocketed for American households,” Warren, the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, wrote. Warren’s letter is the launching point for …

The Degraded State of the Union

The Degraded State of the Union

Published by Sam Flores

Believing it some sort of civic duty to watch President Trump’s 2026 State of the Union address, I considered fortifying myself first with a large rye whiskey on ice, but wisely chose instead President Abraham Lincoln’s Cooper Union address of February 27, 1860. The contrast with Trump’s speech was not so much dispiriting (though it was also that) as instructive, even inspiring. In 2004, the actor Sam Waterston recited the speech in the same Great Hall at Cooper Union, in New York City, where Lincoln had spoken, describing the exercise as “a kind of experiment to see if a speech like this could hold a modern audience’s interest.” The long standing ovation he received provided the answer. Waterston may be Cambridge born, but his voice that night had a prairie twang, and like Lincoln he was lanky, urgent, and utterly in earnest. The original speech addressed three audiences: skeptical easterners who wondered if the frontier lawyer was made of presidential stuff, those who agreed with Senator Stephen A. Douglas that the existence of slavery should …