Local Game Store In Active Negotiations After Bored Girlfriends Of Players Unionize
STAMFORD, CT – Labor rights are being brought to the forefront of gamers minds at a local game store after the girlfriends of players registered for the local Friday Night Magic tournament banded together in their common interests and threatened a strike if their demands weren’t met.
Samantha Martin, the lead negotiator for the union, felt the need to organize the game store’s many bored girlfriends after several weeks of sitting in a chair and refreshing Bluesky for four hours only for her boyfriend to go 1-2. “We really felt like it was an existential matter,” she said in a statement. “As the partners of Magic players, we also deserve basic human dignity. We are standing in a unified front that we will no longer suffer any more nights of being bored while we watch our partners fail another draft, sealed event, or Standard event.”
Many other girlfriends we spoke to shared similar feelings of indignity. “Every Friday I ideally would like to make plans with friends, try a new restaurant, or to go to a concert”, Marissa Molyneux, a local union voter told us. “But instead, all of our weekend plans are routinely put on pause so that my boyfriend can fail to win store credit. We are collectively putting our foot down and demanding better girlfriend conditions.”
In an official statement, the union listed their demands as only playing in LGS near a park or a bar, an opt-out clause for attending the event with their partners, and a guarantee of a further night out if the partner requires the girlfriend’s attendance. They are also demanding that in the event the game store serves food, the store must have offerings past french fries, chicken tenders, and Voodoo Ranger IPAs. “Most game stores only have one women’s room and while it’s normally empty, we are all tired of fighting over the single stall every Friday at 8:30pm,” one union organizer told us.
Jonathan Kang, a representative for the local Boyfriends Guild, has said that while the demands are understandable, further negotiations may have to be held. “Sometimes we’re tired after an event and cannot commit to a further night out. In addition, not every LGS is near a park or a bar, especially the ones with good prize payouts or ones that run Pioneer events. We’ll have to iron out the details but would like to ultimately avoid a full girlfriend strike.” He let us know that the game store food demands may especially be a deal-breaker. “It’s a struggle to get our usual group to try different dipping sauces, let alone something besides chicken tenders.”
Samantha Martin also gave us a look into the union’s future. “We would like to secure an initial contract and then expand out to other regions, as well as use this victory as leverage in future contracts. Some of our members have suggested adding things such as a ban on loose fitting shorts, as well as mandatory beard-trimming before events. While these are ideal terms, the board didn’t feel that these goals would be non-starters in the negotiations.”
