Wizards of the Coast workers on the MTG Arena team are seeking to unionize under the CWA umbrella and have given the company until tomorrow, May 1, or International Workers Day, to respond to their open letter and voluntarily recognize the union. Wizards has now posted a public statement, promising to "respond through the appropriate process", but not yet committing to any course of action beyond reviewing the filing carefully.
We spoke to one of the workers involved in the union effort, Jon Brichoux, a Principle Software Engineer on the Arena team with over 20 years experience at WotC, to find out how this unionization effort began and what the workers' message is for fans of Magic: The Gathering.
The main impetus, it seems, was a return-to-office mandate delivered last year, which required everyone on the team to attend Wizards' office in Renton, Washington. But return to work may be a misnomer. "Many of my colleagues were hired remotely - assured that it would always be remote," Brichoux explains.
He adds that one of his colleagues who wanted to move locally had actually been denied relocation assistance "because they had already proven that they were an effective remote worker".
Brichoux says that there's been no budging or room for discussion on the 'RTO' order and that the overall attitude has been: "if you don't like it, you can quit". As he's locally-based, he's not affected personally by this policy, but is frustrated by WotC changing the deal for his colleagues, asking them to uproot their lives and make a potentially costly move across the country. "I haven't heard a single mention of willingness to share any of that cost," he adds.
The change in policy may have been the main catalyst, but Brichoux says "folks were already feeling very insecure" thanks to rounds of layoffs that took place in 2023/2024. He adds he heard many anecdotes of workers being let go with their bonuses or severance pay dependent on signing a waiver not to dispute the terms of their dismissal.
Working on MTG Arena is the best job Brichoux has ever had, but he says he's observed a "marked shift in tone" over the last year. "We were even required to do training last year where we were basically told that the company doesn't care about our long term career, and that that's our job, and so we've taken up that job," he explains.
As well as remote working and layoff protections, the workers want avoidance of crunch periods, defined career progression, and a voice in setting guidelines about the use of A.I.
Brichoux believes Hasbro and WotC have high integrity, and he is hopeful about their response. "I expect them to take the high road here and to say, hey, you know what? We can have a really positive relationship with the labor union. And you know, we can have a really healthy team."
If there's one thing fans can do to help, he says, it's make their support heard, by signing the petition on the United Wizards of the Coast website.
"I think it is very, very important to get the message out that the community can support us", Brichoux says. "The community can tell Hasbro and Wizards, 'Hey, we want you to support this. Having a good relationship with the union that makes Arena is going to make me feel even better about giving you my money.'"
He says that reading comments from 1,000s of people all wishing him well brought tears to his eyes. "I, I so appreciate it, and we so need it. I think the more folks can come out and support us now, the more Hasbro and Wizards can see that it's in their interest to just immediately take the high road and not make any kind of a PR nightmare for themselves."
Wargamer requested comment from Wizards regarding the claims made in this article, and received the same statement shared by other publications: