Dungeons & Dragons and Studio X Teams Announce Union With CWA

Wizards of the Coast’s Dungeons & Dragons team and Studio X announced their intent to unionize with the Communications Workers of America on 2026년 10월 6일, delivering open letters to company leadership and calling for voluntary recognition by 5 p.m. PT on 2026년 10월 13일. The two units are joining United Wizards of the Coast-CWA, the union formed earlier this year by the company’s MTG Arena team.

The Dungeons & Dragons unit covers workers behind Dungeons & Dragons and D&D Beyond, while Studio X covers the tabletop Magic: The Gathering and Duel Masters teams. Both units informed Wizards of the Coast leadership of their intent on the morning of October 6 and say they come forward with a public supermajority of employees supporting the union.

The workers have also filed an election petition with the National Labor Relations Board. The Dungeons & Dragons team’s letter states the petition will be withdrawn if the company agrees to voluntary recognition in principle by the October 13 deadline, and offers to coordinate a third-party card check to verify supermajority support. The Studio X letter asks leadership to commit to a Labor Neutrality Agreement so workers across the company can unionize without fear of retaliation.

AI and Outside-Work Ownership Demands

Generative AI is among the demands set out in the union’s public petition, which states: “Leadership, without regard for the desires of our teams, has pushed for adoption of LLMs and generative AI. This has to stop; our teams deserve a robust and enforceable AI policy that aligns with our goals and values.”

The D&D letter says pressure has ramped up from Hasbro to adopt LLM and generative-AI tools in various aspects of the team’s work, and that Wizards of the Coast has resisted those efforts and kept AI out of its games. The letter says the union wants to preserve that position through a contract ensuring the games are always made by people. Both unit letters list protection against the encroachment of AI among their demands.

The petition also states that Wizards of the Coast can currently claim ownership over any intellectual property employees create during their tenure, including works fully unrelated to Wizards IP, and argues that what workers make in their free time should belong to them. Both letters demand full ownership of work created outside the office.

Wages, Layoffs, and Workload

The announcement sets out a shared demand list covering wages that reflect the work with defined career progression, job security against industry instability, reliable and accessible healthcare for workers and their families, and sustainable workloads and practices that include remote and hybrid working.

The D&D letter describes employees living in fear of sudden layoffs without warning, and says crunch — defined in the letter as intense and mandatory unpaid overtime — varies widely by team, with some teams crunching on a regular basis to finish planned work. It says the company’s return-to-office policy has forced long commutes without compensation for time or fuel costs, that inflation-adjusted take-home pay has fallen for many employees since they were hired, and that childcare and healthcare policies carry bureaucratic hurdles, adding that no employee should need to turn to crowdfunding during a medical emergency. Once recognized, the letter adds, the union’s elected bargaining committee would be able to request financial information from the company.

Studio X’s letter describes its workers as the creators of the worlds, mechanics, packaging, and print files behind Magic: The Gathering and Duel Masters, and states that the studio is responsible for back-to-back billion-dollar years and a vast majority of Hasbro’s profit. Its demands include compensation that reflects the work, clearly defined career paths and raises, stable remote and hybrid practices, and sustainable workloads that allow an appropriate work-life balance.

MTG Arena Precedent and Union Context

The new units follow the MTG Arena team, which announced its union in 2026년 4월 and won its election this summer. Votes were counted on 2026년 6월 23일, when UWOTC-CWA was officially elected, according to the union’s post marking the result. The D&D and Studio X units said they worked with the MTG Arena union in preparation for their announcement, and the petition credits community support as key to the Arena win.

In a release dated 2026년 10월 6일, the Communications Workers of America said the two teams’ announcement follows the MTG Arena unionization at Wizards of the Coast. Magic Rules Manager Eric Levine, a UWOTC-CWA member, said in the release that the people who make Magic deserve fair compensation, remote protections, and clear career progression.

Joey Haeck, a senior game designer on Dungeons & Dragons and a UWOTC-CWA member, said the unit is organizing “because scared workers are neither happy nor productive,” and described negotiating goals that include layoff protections, forced-relocation protections, equitable pay and career advancement, mandatory-AI-use protections, and parental support.

CWA District 7 Vice President Susie McAllister said the union looks forward to supporting the workers’ campaign for voluntary recognition. According to the release, more than 4,000 workers have organized across the gaming industry through CWA’s Campaign to Organize Digital Employees, spanning AAA studios within Microsoft’s gaming division to independent publishers, and United Videogame Workers-CWA Local 9433, a direct-join formation launched in 2025, now has nearly 600 members across the United States and Canada. The release also cites Blizzard Entertainment and Paizo among the gaming companies whose workers have previously organized with CWA.

If Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro agree to voluntary recognition in principle by the October 13 deadline, the D&D letter says the union will withdraw its NLRB election petition and coordinate a third-party card check to finalize a recognition agreement. The union’s announcement states that once recognized, the units will begin bargaining and share further details as they develop.