This wiki is written mainly for U.S. private-sector software and game workers. If you are outside the United States, the site can still help with issue framing, organizing hygiene, and common failure modes, but it is not a substitute for your own country's labor law.
The plain-English version
The International Labour Organization treats freedom of association and collective bargaining as fundamental labor rights. Convention No. 87 says workers have the right to establish and join organizations of their own choosing without previous authorization. The ILO Helpdesk on collective bargaining describes the right to bargain freely with employers as an essential element of freedom of association.
That is the broad floor.
The practical rules still live in national law. The ILO also explains in its labour administration overview that international labor standards are usually applied through national law and policy, and that countries maintain their own labor-administration systems.
So the useful takeaway is not "the whole world works like the NLRA." The useful takeaway is "many countries recognize organizing and bargaining rights, but the actual route runs through local law and local institutions."
What to identify first
- which country or countries the workers are employed in
- whether the employer is public, private, or operating through contractors or agencies
- which ministry, labour inspectorate, labor board, or industrial-relations body handles workplace disputes
- whether there is already a recognized union, works council, staff association, or sectoral union in the field
What this site can still do well
Even outside the United States, the wiki can still help workers:
- separate a shared workplace issue from a purely individual frustration
- compare notes more carefully
- avoid reckless behavior that hands management an easy pretext
- think about work mode, role ambiguity, retaliation risk, and campaign sequencing
Those are organizing problems, not just U.S. legal problems.
What not to import blindly from U.S. pages
- NLRB timelines or filing assumptions
- U.S. supervisor and contractor categories as if they were universal
- U.S. protected-concerted-activity language as if it were the only model
- any claim that a tactic is safe just because it may be protected somewhere else
A steadier next step
Treat this site as orientation, not local legal authority.
Then do three concrete things:
- identify the national or regional labor institution that governs the workplace
- look for the sectoral union, federation, or worker organization that already covers similar workers
- keep using the issue guides and checklists here for campaign hygiene, but ground the legal assumptions in your own jurisdiction