In what is a victory for union organizing, Paizo has announced that it has voluntarily recognized the United Paizo Workers union, which is affiliated with the Communications Workers of America (CWA).

In the announcement, Jeff Alvarez, President of Paizo said:

We look forward to working with the union to continue and expand our efforts to make Paizo a better place to work and to ensure that Pathfinder and Starfinder products continue to exceed gamer expectations for many years to come.

The next steps will involve the United Paizo Workers (UPW) union electing their bargaining representatives and then meeting with Paizo management to negotiate terms for a collective bargaining agreement. This process can take some time, but Paizo has said they are committed to the effort and hope to settle a contract in due course.

In the press announcement, Paizo event went so far to encourage following the UPW on Twitter for future updates!

The UPW made its intentions known a week ago today laying out the reasons for their organizing. You can read more about that here. With lots of chatter about working conditions within the game industry, is this the beginning of a broader movement?