GWU Australia and Professionals Australia partner to launch new union in 2022

Since launching in 2018, GWU Australia has been supporting and empowering workers to build a better games industry, together.

As part of our efforts, we have been connecting our members with Australia’s union movement – and we have also been negotiating to bring the union movement to Australia’s games industry.

Professionals Australia is the union that covers IT workers, scientists, pharmacists and even industries like translators and interpreters. They were founded in 1946 to cover engineers, but expanded to cover many more industries and in 2013 became the union they are today.

Last week, the board of Professionals Australia met and endorsed a proposal from GWU Australia. That proposal was the result of more than a year of negotiations, consultations and discussions between us, all with one goal in mind: to create a new division of Professionals Australia entirely for game workers.

Today, we are thrilled to announce that negotiation has been successful.

Welcome to Game Workers Australia.

Next year, GWU Australia will re-launch as Game Workers Australia: an all-new division of Professionals Australia with a tiered membership package just for game workers.

By becoming a member of the newly formed Game Workers Australia, you’ll become a formal trade union member of Professionals Australia and have access to support, services and solidarity that will help you at your workplace. 

We will retain our free membership tier, and continue to offer the same assistance that we currently offer to anyone in need who approaches us. 

But with the power of Professionals Australia behind us, we’ll be able to do so much more – take legal action to defend our members against underpayments, discrimination and bullying, organise collective agreements at workplaces, and lobby governments and industry on an equal playing field with studio owners and publishers.

We’re yet to nail down exactly when Game Workers Australia will launch. You can register your interest to become a member, or stay informed about the latest news, by clicking here

Want to do more than just wait? You can join GWU Australia now (it’s free!) to be in on the ground floor as this transformation happens.

Currently, we are hoping to launch in March 2022. Watch this space!

What’s next?

There’s a lot to do, and we’re getting started right away.

We need a new website, a new sign-up form, membership and payment options, an implementation plan, a growth roadmap – and much more. Professionals Australia will be supporting us as we put all the structures we need in place.

As always, we would love for you to be a part of this journey. 

Please take a moment to fill out the GWU Australia membership form and jump into our private, secure Discord server where you can help to shape the future of Australia’s first-ever union for game workers. We can’t wait to meet you.