There was a union situation involving Nintendo recently that wasn't very highly talked about. A tester who was doing work for Nintendo of America under contract from a company called Ashton-Carter claims they got fired for bringing up the subject of unions in a company Zoom meeting that Doug Bowser was in attendance, though I believe NoA corporate said months ago it was really due to breaking NDA. The fired contractor took NoA and Ashton-Carter to court and in the end did win a settlement of $25000 from both parties and NoA is now legally required to have fliers hanging in the offices that if people want to discuss unions they can without worry of firing, but due to a lack of investigative reporting from reliable sources it's hard to tell if indeed the subject of "unions" was what lead to this AC contractor no longer doing contract work for NoA.

And once again the unions get away scot-free.

Don't get me wrong, I think the idea of unions is great, but considering I don't live in the US, the tales I hear from at least three sides involved are, compared to us, horrifying:

- From people just wanting to talk about unions: Say the U-word, you can be fired on the spot and blacklisted industrywide (two things that are grossly illegal here with heavy fines levied to the one who thinks they can fire people "American Style"); - From people who need a job done and ANYONE involved is unionized: You're face to face with the guy with the knife and cheese in hand, you can see by the sweat on their brow they REALLY want to apply knife to the cheese and you already agreed to slightly above union rates; Knife won't cut the cheese until the union/guild gives clearance to do so. Which is basically free real estate and fuel for anti-union folks. - For people in the unions: I see in some cases the "hardly fought for" rates still aren't that great but "it's a start" but, by the above, they still feel bummed because certain jobs invoke the "aren't you forgetting someone" meme, you both agree to the terms and rates, they're within union's agreements, but they still have to run through union's bureaucracy to make sure the floor is made of floor.

Meanwhile the most I have to worry about unions is them delaying our raises after they failed to meet the deadlines or fake strike calls.