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The Dungeons & Dragons and Magic: The Gathering teams at Wizards of the Coast have just announced they're unionizing, joining the Wizards of the Coast-CWA (UWOTC-CWA) union formed by the Arena team earlier this year. In a letter of demands, the union has urged Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast leaders to stop pushing generative AI.
The Arena team, behind the online version of Magic: The Gathering, unionized back in April, and after months, has won its union election. Now, on October 8, that union is expanding to adopt the Dungeons & Dragons team and Team X – the team behind Magic: The Gathering and Dual Masters. The Wizards of the Coast-CWA is giving the company until October 13 to voluntarily recognize the expanded unit. However, Wizards did not voluntarily recognize the union when it was just the Arena team, so this will probably be an uphill battle.
The new union shared a petition ahead of its recognition, with demands it's presenting to Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro. One of those demands is protection against the encroachment of AI, where it says, "Leadership, without regard for the desires of our teams, has pushed for adoption of LLMs and generative AI. This has to stop; our teams deserve a robust and enforceable AI policy that aligns with our goals and values."
Similar to another demand letter published when the union was first formed in April, UWOTC-CWA is also demanding 'Full ownership of what we create outside of work.' Back then, the union's announcement letter said, "Currently, if an employee makes anything creative in their free time, with their own resources, Hasbro may claim ownership. What we do in our free time should not be dictated by the company; neither should what we make in our free time be owned by the company."
The new petition reiterates this, saying, "Wizards can currently claim ownership over any IP created by employees during their tenure at Wizards, including works that are fully unrelated to Wizards IP. What we make in our free time should belong to us, not the company."
Only time will tell if Hasbro voluntarily recognizes the union, especially now that the UWOTC-CWA has already won one election. If Hasbro doesn't recognize the union, it'll have to file with the NLRB and win another election.
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