[hangonhn]

"so the game dev shops know that most/all inhumane treatment will be accepted by the next person who will gladly endure it to be working in the industry."

This is precisely the environment where unions emerged. If individual workers had a lot of leverage, there would never be a need for unions.

[will_pseudonym]

Yes, but the workers in those original unionization events didn't have as many options as the workers who are doing game development. People weren't working in factories and coal mines because they loved it, turning down other, less inhumane and more lucrative positions to do so. The options were the horrible companies or unionization.

For a game developer, the options are horrible companies, unionization, or a development job in any other field.