In today’s News and Commentary, Florida further restricts public employee unions, Yale begins negotiations with newly-unionized postdocs, and online tabletop game developers at Wizards of the Coast seek union certification.

On Friday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law several new restrictions on public sector unions, the latest move in his ongoing battle with Florida’s teachers’ unions. One provision dictates that unions can only be certified if 50 percent of eligible employees vote in the election, and mandates that if 60 percent of the bargaining unit opts not to pay dues, the union must petition the state for recertification. Other changes reduced paid union leave and created a new pay incentive scheme that “removes unions from the discussion” by adding another hurdle to teachers’ ability to “collectively bargain pay and working conditions.” The signing took place on the Friday before Teacher Appreciation Week, which was also International Workers’ Day. As Florida ranked last nationwide in teacher pay for the third year in a row, these measures were heavily criticized by the Florida Education Association. Though Governor DeSantis announced that the law would “provide once and for all for the decertification of partisan teacher unions,” the changes will also impact Florida’s sanitation workers, physicians, and other non-teacher public employees. Moreover, the legislation created a legal distinction between public safety and non-public safety employees, exempting corrections officers and first responders from the new requirements. 

Also on Friday, Yale University announced that it would begin collective bargaining negotiations with its postdoctoral research fellows and associates just one day after the postdocs voted to join UNITE HERE Local 33. The American Arbitration Association certified the election on Thursday night, with 96.5 percent of ballots cast in favor of joining the union. Local 33, which also represents the university’s roughly 4,000 graduate student workers, will add nearly 1,400 postdocs to its ranks, making UNITE HERE the representative for over 10,000 Yale employees. Yale unions were already a historically powerful force in New Haven politics, largely due to the clerical and service workers unionized with Locals 34 and 35, respectively.  Provost Scott Strobel and Vice Provost for Postdoctoral Affairs Lynn Cooley said that “Yale aims to reach an initial postdoc contract in under a year,” building on “the strong relationship already in place between the university and Local 33.” 

Finally, over 100 developers of Magic: The Gathering Arena, an online game with 13 million registered players, announced their plans to unionize with the CWA. This effort is the first attempt to unionize employees of Wizards of the Coast (WOTC), a Hasbro subsidiary studio best known for developing online versions of popular tabletop games like Dungeons and Dragons. The developers set a May 1 deadline for Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast to voluntarily recognize the union, which, a senior software engineer said on Bluesky, passed with “no response” from WOTC. The developers also filed with the NLRB for a certification election, which WOTC “received,” and a WOTC spokesperson noted that the company “appreciates hearing the employees’ concerns.” In their announcement, the developers listed layoff protections, AI usage, and mandatory “crunch” time (overtime) as bargaining priorities. Workers’ unionization efforts accelerated after changes to company policies about remote work and “ownership of creative materials.” According to the CWA, over 4,000 employees in the gaming industry have organized with the union as part of its Campaign to Organize Digital Employees.