Today, a group of cross-discipline video game workers have announced the first-ever direct-join industry-wide union in North America, known as United Videogame Workers, organizing with Communications Workers of America (UVW-CWA).UVW-CWA is a direct-join organization, meaning any video game industry worker in the U.S. or Canada working as an artist, writer, designer, QA tester, or programmer can join, regardless of whether they are freelance or fulltime or whether or not other workers at their company have joined.In a press release, UVW-CWA shared that its mission is "to not only build community and solidarity amongst video game workers, but also to build large-scale education campaigns about labor organizing in the video game industry." The group's first issue campaign will focus on the recent tide of industry mass layoffs, with workers planning to share around a petition at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) addressing the issue.Additionally at GDC, UVW-CWA will host multiple panels, a rally, and a launch party to spread awareness of the union and celebrate its formation. They will also have a booth on the show floor, and will distribute a zine at the event with more information on how to join.This announcement fulfills a near-decade-long saga begun at the Game Developers Conference back in 2018, when a unionization roundtable sparked a group of individuals to form Game Workers Unite to push for collective labor action in the industry. In subsequent years, GWU continued to push for industry unions, with their work ultimatley bearing fruit in recent years as workers at companies including Activision, Blizzard, Zenimax, Bethesda, and Sega in the U.S. organized.Though this is the first North American industry-wide union, other similar groups exist in the UK and France, and developers in union-friendly Sweden are also increasingly exercising their rights to form union clubs within their companies.Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.