Emma Kinema

Emma Kinema is an American labor organizer and co-founder of Game Workers Unite. In addition to her full-time job as a quality assurance tester, Kinema volunteered as a games industry organizer in 2018 and 2019. She was hired by the Communications Workers of America union in 2020 to organize video game and tech workers as part of the Campaign to Organize Digital Employees, the first American initiative of its kind in those sectors.

Emma Kinema
OccupationLabor organizer
Known forGame Workers Unite,
CODE-CWA

Career
External video
Presentation at XOXO, 2019

In addition to her full-time job as a quality assurance tester for an Orange County, California-based game developer, Kinema volunteered with Game Workers Unite to organize the video games industry. This volunteering, which she estimated as 60 hours per week, included giving and receiving training and was supported by crowdfunded monthly income.[1] Kinema and games writer Liz Ryerson were the main figures behind the initial expansion of Game Workers Unite in early 2018.[2] Kinema helped to organize a panel on labor at the March 2019 Game Developers' Conference[3] and in May, helped to organize the walkout at Riot Games over its handling of sex discrimination. She assisted Riot workers in creating an organizing committee after they attended a 2018 Game Workers Unite meeting and further advised the organizers via phone.[1] Following two years of discussions,[4] in January 2020, Communications Workers of America hired Kinema to organize workers in the video game and tech industries.[5] It is the first such union-sanctioned initiative in those sectors.[6] Her initiative with Wes McEnany is named Campaign to Organize Digital Employees (CODE). She plans to use the Communications Workers of America's infrastructure to fight issues including crunch time, layoffs, and workplace ethics, which she has contended as working conditions for employees who choose employers based on ability to make societal impact. She also emphasized the slow-moving nature of organizing through one-on-one relationships.[5] CODE organized the New York-based tech company Glitch in March[7] and contracted writers for Voltage Entertainment, whose successful July strike led to pay increases and workplace transparency.[8]

Variety named the Game Workers Unite organizers and Kinema (as the group's most public figure) among the most influential people in video games in 2018.[9] In early 2020, Kinema said that she was involved with almost every video game worker unionization drive in the United States.[5] She had previously trained with the Industrial Workers of the World.[1]

Personal life

Her name is a pseudonym chosen so that she could continue working in the games industry without risking dismissal or reprisal under at-will employment. She described undergoing "pretty extreme lengths" to separate her full-time career from her work as an organizer.[10]

See also

References
  1. Scheiber, Noam (September 1, 2019). "As Grass-Roots Labor Activism Rises, Will Unions Take Advantage?". The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 6, 2020. Retrieved January 12, 2020.
  2. Frank, Allegra (March 21, 2018). "This is the group using GDC to bolster game studio unionization efforts". Polygon. Retrieved January 12, 2020.
  3. Futter, Michael (March 22, 2019). "What Game Workers Can Learn From Other Labor Organizations". Variety. Archived from the original on September 29, 2019. Retrieved January 12, 2020.
  4. D'Anastasio, Cecilia (January 7, 2020). "A Big Union Wants to Make Videogame Workers' Lives More Sane". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Archived from the original on April 7, 2020. Retrieved April 12, 2020.
  5. Hall, Charlie (January 9, 2020). "The effort to unionize the video game industry just got a shot of adrenaline". Polygon. Retrieved January 12, 2020.
  6. Statt, Nick (January 7, 2020). "A massive telecom union just launched a new campaign to unionize game developers". The Verge. Archived from the original on January 13, 2020. Retrieved January 13, 2020.
  7. Heater, Brian (March 13, 2020). "Online code collaboration tool Glitch votes to unionize". TechCrunch. Retrieved April 12, 2020.
  8. Carpenter, Nicole (August 11, 2020). "These game writers made history by going on strike — and winning". Polygon. Retrieved August 12, 2020.
  9. Winkie, Luke (December 31, 2018). "Most Influential in Video Games 2018: Esports Stars, Union Leaders, Iconic Indies". Variety. Archived from the original on September 28, 2019. Retrieved January 12, 2020.
  10. Milner, David (December 21, 2018). "Game Workers Unite: The Fight To Unionize The Video Game Industry". Game Informer. Archived from the original on January 12, 2020. Retrieved January 11, 2020.

Further reading
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