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# Responding to union concerns, Hasbro CEO says "the greatest form of job protection any team can have is to expand the business they're working on"
- URL: https://www.verticalslice.news/responding-to-union-concerns-hasbro-ceo-claims-the-greatest-form-of-job-protection-is-business-expansion/
- Published: 2026-10-28T17:42:50.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-28T19:23:16.000Z
- Description: Wizards of the Coast workers are once again attempting to unionise without support from parent company Hasbro.
- Author: Chris Kerr
- Tags: News, Labour

[During a recent on-stage interview with Boston radio WBUR](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1tdcmlycdo&t=976s&sttick=0&ref=verticalslice.news), Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks was asked why the company is seemingly not thrilled about workers unionising at Dungeons & Dragons maker Wizards of the Coast. In response, he claimed the company supports a worker's "right to unionise" before intimating that Wizards of the Coast employees already have it pretty good.

To frame the question, Cocks was played an audio clip from unionising Wizards of the Coast producer Vanessa Hoskins, who explained employees are not organising for "nefarious reasons" but to secure peace of mind in a fraught entertainment industry that is being torn asunder by layoffs at the hands of corporate overseers.

"We at Wizards of the Coast enjoy our jobs. We are not trying to organise for any nefarious reasons. We're organising because we really love what we do. We love making the games that we create—D&D, Magic The Gathering, Duel Masters—and we want to keep making those games," said Hoskins. "It is unfathomable to us why they would be laying off workers that are hitting their numbers and doing a good job. So, layoff protections would give us some peace of mind that our jobs that we love will be there tomorrow for us."

[As noted by Forbes](https://www.forbes.com/sites/robwieland/2023/12/13/hasbro-layoffs-affect-wizards-of-the-coast/?ref=verticalslice.news), Hasbro announced 1,900 layoffs in June 2023.

Earlier this year, the game developers behind *Magic The Gathering: Arena* [voted to unionize](https://unitedwizardsofthecoast.com/news/2026-06-23-we-have-a-union?ref=verticalslice.news) after Hasbro declined to voluntarily recognise the union, known as United Wizards of the Coast-CWA (UWOTC-CWA). Now, their colleagues across other teams such as Duel Masters and Dungeons & Dragons are also [attempting to unionise](https://www.verticalslice.news/scared-workers-are-neither-happy-nor-productive-d-d-and-magic-the-gathering-staff-seek-to-unionize/) in pursuit of fair wages, job security, accessible healthcare, generative AI protections, and other provisions. Once again, [Hasbro has refused to voluntarily recognise those units](https://www.verticalslice.news/wizards-of-the-coast-refuses-to-voluntarily-recognise-unionising-d-d-and-magic-the-gathering-workers-2/).

Yet, Cocks said Hasbro is more than happy for its employees to discuss unionisation, it just seems that he's less enthused about the prospect of it actually happening.

"I think we're in support of a person's right to unionise and a person's right to have the discussion around it and a vote around it. Where we look at the Wizards of the Coast situation, there's a lot of people like Vanessa who want to be a part of the union and a fair number of people who don't want to be a part of the union. So we just want them to have a fair and equitable conversation about it that actually involves the managers that they love and the teams that they love. They can make that decision," he said. 

"When you make a decision around unionising it's not a small decision. It affects everyone. So, if 60 percent of the people on a team want to unionise, 100 percent of the people have to join the union and have to join collective bargaining. That has implications about how we pay people. How we build benefits. What pace we can do that, and how we can differentiate—because as good as everyone is on \[our\] teams, some people have better years than others and it's nice to be able to reward and recognise them when they do."

Cocks claimed to understand the concerns being shared by Wizards of the Coast employees, but indicated that successfully unionising would somehow leave staff in a far worse position with regards to compensation and benefits. Weird. I wonder who'd be making those lowball offers at the negotiating table?

"I get where the Wizards' concerns are, and I think it's important also to put into context what their lived experience has been. The average person on a team like Magic—the average individual contributor on a team like Magic—makes about $140,000 per year. They've been averaging over the last three years around a $40,000 bonus," he continued. "They've been hitting I think somewhere between 150 \[percent\] to 175 percent of target. Their pay increases have been about 25 percent over the past three years, versus the national average within the game industry of around 11 percent and inflation of around 9 percent. They get about eight weeks of paid time off per year. It's probably the best in the industry."

When asked specifically about the need for assurances around job security, Cocks said "the greatest form of job protection any team can have is to expand the business they're working on." He also suggested that a unionised team will be one that suddenly becomes slower or less innovative overnight. 

"I love that team. I respect that team. I just want to make sure we can innovate and deliver for our consumers as best as possible. That's going to be the best way we can not just protect the people who are on the team, but grow the number of people who are on that team. Promote that team as rapidly as possible," he added.

"If I have any kind of concerns about a union, it's about changing the dynamic of one of the most successful sets of teams in the industry \[in a way\] that would slow us down and prevent us from being able to achieve all that I think we're potentially able to achieve."