Pro-union activists at the Game Awards \u201cintimidated\u201d by police to enter \u201cFree Speech Zone\u201d Game Workers of SoCal | TwitterPro-union activists with the Game Workers Alliance were reportedly \u201cintimidated\u201d by police while picketing outside the Game Awards 2022, with a claim of a \u2018Labor Creates Games\u2019 pin being taken away by security and a reported attempt to stick activists in the so-called \u201cFree Speech Zone.\u201d The Game Awards broke viewership records with over 3.4 million viewers at its peak, getting more eyes on video games and the people who make them than ever before. Jessica Gonzalez, an organizer of the Game Workers Alliance and the founder of the ABetterABK movement, was picketing alongside other activists outside of the Game Awards with signs that read \u2018The Game Worker Awards\u2019 and buttons that read \u2018Labor Makes Games\u2019 to spread their message. Dexerto interviewed Jessica to ask about her experience at the event and some details about her interaction with the police and security at the Game Awards. Pro-union protesters put in the \u201cfree speech zone\u201d According to Gonzalez\u2019s account of the evening, those picketing in front of the event had the police called on them by event security. This resulted in an interaction with the LAPD, one that Gonzalez detailed in Dexerto\u2019s interview with her. \u201cGoing into the event, we consulted with LAPD\u2019s labor division and a lawyer. We knew that we were legally protected to hold our informational picket outside of the venue where we were. It was public property, but security didn\u2019t want us there (we looked bad for business, I guess), so they tried to intimidate us away by grabbing the LAPD and saying that this was a private event. We asserted our rights, and they said they\u2019d be back to construct the Free Speech Zone in 20 minutes.\u201d The third picture in this tweet shows the group having a run-in with the LAPD, and the fourth picture shows the aforementioned \u201cFree Speech Zone\u201d set up for those picketing at the event. Gonzalez claimed she and the other attending activists ignored it and remained outside the entrance. \u201cWe were allowed to be outside of the entrance. They had to concede and deal with the fact that we had rights and not what they wanted us to have for rights.\u201d Additionally, there was a report from an attendee by the name of Ellie having their pin confiscated by security upon trying to enter the Game Awards. We asked Gonzalez if she could shed any light on this event. \u201cI was made aware of one incident where a developer was given a pin and then walked inside, the security told her that he couldn\u2019t let her inside with that (pointing to the pin she just put on), and she had to toss it in the bin. That was the only incident I am aware of, and I think it\u2019s because the security guard saw us give it to her.\u201d That said, Gonzalez hadn\u2019t heard about any other incidents involving the removal of \u2018Labor Makes Games\u2019 buttons and claimed that other developers entered without issue. \u201cI heard more devs made it into the venue wearing the pins proudly. As long as devs were showing solidarity with the pins \u2018Labor Creates Games,\u2019 I had no complaints, even if security was being childish.\u201d When asked why security at the Game Awards would want to remove pro-union messaging from the event, she had this to say: \u201cThis event usually only highlights the executives and not the rank-and-file workers. Unions are scary to companies because they\u2019ve gotten their millions in bonuses from wage theft. Of course, they don\u2019t want labor unions telling developers they have rights.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Pro-union activists at the Game Awards \u201cintimidated\u201d by police to enter \u201cFree Speech Zone\u201d Game Workers of SoCal | TwitterPro-union activists with the Game Workers Alliance were reportedly \u201cintimidated\u201d by police while picketing outside the Game Awards 2022, with a claim of a \u2018Labor Creates Games\u2019 pin being taken away by security and a reported […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-84375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84375\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}