ESports team Natus Vincere’s CEO Alexander “ZeroGravity” Kokhanovsky has reached out to fellow eSports teams to create a player’s union, a lesson that poker players could take notice of.

A company is only as good as the people that it keeps. It doesn’t matter if your company is responsible for taking away the trash, hosting eSports tournaments or a platform to play online or live poker. If you don’t treat your people right, they will leave and then your bottom line will suffer. It’s the people that hold all of the power, not the company.

In the UK, train driver’s union ASLEF are in situ to ensure that their members are suitably compensated for the work they do, and that their welfare is taken care of whilst in employment, and during retirement. To the train driver they can be the difference between a salary and a visit to the job center. To the company, they can be a royal pain in the ass.

I know this because I sat across the table from these trade unionists during my 19-years in the rail industry. I learned a few lessons during those confrontations – and they were confrontations: the union always got what they wanted, and unions are essential if the company places the importance of profit over people.