Unionization has been a hot topic in the games industry for some time now, and things only seem to be heating up as time goes on. It seems that every week more stories emerge about overworked and underpaid employees grinding to make video games, from accusations of a hostile workplace environment at NetherRealm to Epic employees enduring 100-hour work weeks to push out  Fortnite updates. Now, Delta Airlines has stirred controversy with an anti-union poster that has been making its rounds on the internet.

The poster in question appears to be a type of leaked HR document, similar to what would be found hanging around breakrooms all across the US. However, this poster takes a hard anti-union stance in a pretty ridiculous way, stating, "Union Dues cost around $700 a year," the poster continues, " A new video game system with the latest hits sounds like fun. Put your money towards that instead of paying dues to the union."

Needless to say, the image has not been received well thus far, especially considering that the games industry is currently in its biggest push to unionize in years. Many have taken to social media platforms to call out Delta over the poster, with some citing how much unions have helped them over the course of their careers.

It's worth noting that, statistically, nearly half of game developers want to unionize, so the negative response should have been anticipated by Delta, especially considering things like this typically leak to the internet. Since the image began circulating, Twitter users have posted dozens of replies to Delta's more recent tweets criticizing the image as well as the company's stance.

Delta didn't confirm or deny the poster's authenticity, though a spokeswoman for the company, Lisa Hanna, did distribute a statement regarding it, stating that Delta has the highest compensation for its employees in the industry and that the company intended to "on the whole make clear that deciding whether or not to unionize should not be taken lightly".

The incident is disappointing, to say the least, and involving the games industry in an anti-unionization piece falls nothing short of tone-deaf. It seems unlikely that Delta will issue a formal apology, and the incident has largely been overlooked following the controversy surrounding YouTuber ProJared. People will likely move on to the next issues that face the industry, but this will likely be a sore-point for Delta for years to come.

Source: Washington Post