Following the announcement that Magic: The Gathering Arena developers were petitioning to form a union last month, Wizards of the Coast has responded not by voluntarily recognizing their union, but by sending letters to employees urging them to think twice.
This comes from multiple posts on Bluesky by employees who received the letter. Seemingly penned by former World of Warcraft GM and current WotC president John Hight, it includes a number of lines heavily implying that a unionized workforce would be worse off than a non-union one, including suggestions that workers may end up with worse benefits or wages than they have now. In the letter, WotC management uses known union-busting jargon, including referring to the union of workers as a “third-party” and suggesting it would be better to maintain a “direct working relationship with leadership.” The language carefully skirts the prohibitions listed under the National Labor Relations Act, which only bans directly threatening employees with negative consequences for unionizing or promising them benefits if the union is rejected.
Notably, union leaders say they have not collectively received any communication directly from Wizards of the Coast as a union. The company responded to the union petition via a statement sent to press, and has said nothing else since. The union has also claimed the company hired employer advocacy lawyers Fisher Phillips to represent them in union matters, and has been engaging in “a daily union-avoidance campaign by sending emails to the Arena team that is spreading information and sowing fear among our colleagues.” Kotaku has reached out to Wizards of the Coast for comment.
Magic: The Gathering Arena developers told Kotaku in April that they’re unionizing in response to “recent decisions by WOTC and Hasbro leadership” that “have not aligned with the values of their employees.” The union is asking for better layoff and remote work protections and clear guidelines and protections around generative AI, among other asks. Recently, those involved stated on the union’s Bluesky account that they have 75-percent support among their colleagues.
