Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer Creatures
Frozen Sick
D&D Beyond Basic Rules
Basic Rules (2014)
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Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer CreaturesFrozen SickD&D Beyond Basic RulesBasic Rules (2014)Sign in to view your library & saved favorites.
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Exactly as I predicted.
Hasbro doesn't like it, but doesn't think it's worth fighting against & recognizes it.
Now, will anything come of this on the consumer end?
We don't know, & likely won't. I still have ZERO idea where the Enworld leaker is getting their info from.
DM, player & homebrewer(Current homebrew project is an unofficial conversion of SBURB/SGRUB from Homestuck into DND 5e)
Once made Maxwell's Silver Hammer come down upon Strahd's head to make sure he was dead.
Always study & sharpen philosophical razors. They save a lot of trouble.
It’s not really a thing you fight, as an employer. The employees take their vote, and there it is. An employer might make a case that it’s not needed, or try to highlight the down side, but it’s not really a fight kind of thing.
As a consumer, I doubt there is much we’ll notice. Certainly, a well functioning union can lead to more secure workers, who are happier in their jobs. And that could give us better quality products. But how we’d tease that out as attributable to the union is really next to impossible.
And enworld is just citing a story on wargamer.
https://www.wargamer.com/dnd/mtg-union-not-recognized-by-wotc
I automatically question Wargamer's integrity, based on their LONG history of stoking the flames of conflict in TTRPG fandom via clickbait.
DM, player & homebrewer(Current homebrew project is an unofficial conversion of SBURB/SGRUB from Homestuck into DND 5e)
Once made Maxwell's Silver Hammer come down upon Strahd's head to make sure he was dead.
Always study & sharpen philosophical razors. They save a lot of trouble.
I'm not sure any of the Enworld information counts as leaks, though I didn't read the entire thread so there could be something further down. There doesn't seem to be anything there that's especially secret (I expect the source for most of that is the union; they're under no special obligation to keep secret that WotC didn't choose to accept unionization without a vote).
Another update. Disappointing, but unsurprising. So much for "not fighting".
https://www.enworld.org/threads/wizards-of-the-coast-retains-fisher-phillips-a-union-avoidance-firm-vote-will-take-place-on-november-10th.721114/
Clarification:They're maintaining an(ineffective) company that deters unions, but the vote is still happening because Fisher-Phillips is crap at their job & the unioneers are stronger, & the vote's result will still be respected.
DM, player & homebrewer(Current homebrew project is an unofficial conversion of SBURB/SGRUB from Homestuck into DND 5e)
Once made Maxwell's Silver Hammer come down upon Strahd's head to make sure he was dead.
Always study & sharpen philosophical razors. They save a lot of trouble.
Fisher Philips is a law firm that specializes in employment issues from the employment side of the issue. Wizards was always going to hire an outside law firm - these issues are extremely complex and should not be handled by an attorney without experience in negotiating union contracts. Wizards was always going to hire someone who has experience from the business perspective because of course you hire people who have experience. And any business side law firm is going to develop a label as being on the opposite side of a union.
This is not disappointing in the slightest, it is exactly how the system is designed to work. Notably, they hired this firm the last time there were unionization efforts, and nothing unexpected or untoward has been reported about how that process is going.
Edit:
This also betrays a lack of knowledge of the systems. The vote is going to happen because that is the law. A law firm is not going to stop that - in fact, if they did, then they would be “crap at their job” as they’d be giving bad legal advice and advocating for their client to do something that could get them in a lot of trouble.
Fisher Philips is one of the most recognized and effective big law firms in the world, with numerous extremely well regarded attorneys. They might be on the “wrong” side from some perspectives, but saying they’re bad at their job is hardly accurate.
Hiring a law firm is not fighting, it's just being cautious. Fighting would be an actual lawsuit by one side or the other (didn't happen before so not particularly likely this time either, but not impossible).
People said this when the Arena employees unionized.
Fisher-Phillips & Hasbro didn't succeed then.
I do think that the union is stronger-willed than the anti-union law firm, Chris Cocks, the shareholders & naysayers at this point.
DM, player & homebrewer(Current homebrew project is an unofficial conversion of SBURB/SGRUB from Homestuck into DND 5e)
Once made Maxwell's Silver Hammer come down upon Strahd's head to make sure he was dead.
Always study & sharpen philosophical razors. They save a lot of trouble.
We don't even know what Fisher-Phillips was hired for, and thus we can't say whether they did what they were paid for. As for winning, while I'd give the union a pretty good chance of winning, strength of will isn't why -- elections are about politics, not willpower.
Are any of the other parts of the Hasbro corporation unionized? That would give you some idea of how Hasbro would react to a union at Wizards. Also, since Wizards is based in Washington state, does the Washington State government encourage unions or is Washington state one of the "right to work" states that discourage unions?
In Illinois, for example, while unions are permitted, an employer can define a job in such a way that an employee in that job is ineligible to participate in a union. Usually, senior administrative positions and certain technical positions are ruled as being "exempt" from union participation while most non-administrative positions are ruled as "non exempt" and thus permitted to join a union, if the employee wishes to do so. During my father's career at a factory that built earth moving machines, in the early years, he was in the local union. Over time, though, he left the union as he assumed administrative duties. As for myself, as a software developer and systems manager at a public university, I was ruled as being "exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act" and thus ineligible to join a union
Does this make me an expert on labor vs. management matters? NO, NO, NO, NO. I am definitely not an expert on this subject.
Interesting interview just dropped on YouTube of Mystic Arts interviewing Wizard's Joey Haeck about their history in the TTRPG field but a big part of the interview is the reality of working for WotC and why the union is needed