Sega of America workers win union vote
Sega of America employees voted “yes” to officially form a union. The National Labor Relations Board tallied the group’s submitted votes on Monday, with the Allied Employees Guild Improving Sega, or AEGIS, winning the votes.
One hundred and seventeen votes were counted, 91 votes for the union and 26 votes against. (Several votes were disputed and not counted.) The unit will include more than 200 features at Sega of America’s Irvine, Calif. office, Communications Workers of America said in a press release.
The union includes several departments: marketing, games as a service, localization, product development and quality assurance. The Irvine office, which will open in 2022, will house up to 235 employees. With this win, AEGIS-CWA is the first video game industry association at a large company spanning multiple divisions. Boston-based Activision Blizzard studio Proletariat tried this earlier in 2023, but eventually withdrew the union’s petition. The NLRB will then have to certify the union before negotiating.
“We are thrilled to celebrate our election victory as members of AEGIS-CWA,” Sega of America translator Ángel Gómez said in a press statement. “From the start of this campaign, it was clear that we all care deeply about our work at SEGA. Now, thanks to our union, we can protect the parts of our jobs we love, and strengthen benefits, pay, and job stability for all employees. Together we can build an even better SEGA. We hope our victory today is an inspiration to other employees in the gaming industry. Together we can raise standards for all employees across the industry.”
The video game industry’s union push has been largely led by QA employees and indie studios, with indie Tender Claws Human Union leading the way with its cross-departmental union.
Sega itself is headquartered in Japan, but has several local offices around the world. It is best known for its arcade and video games in franchises such as Sonic the Hedgehog, Yakuza, and Persona. Sega Sammy, the holding company of Sega and Sammy Corporation, gave its Japan-based employees a 30% pay raise in February, but it didn’t extend outside Japan. Sega of America union members are seeking higher base pay, increases in line with inflation, improved benefits and more staff to end overtime at the company.
With this win, the video game industry’s union effort has reached another milestone; the effort officially began in 2021 when defunct indie studio Vodeo Games announced its union. Unions have continued to pop up throughout the industry, in studios large and small, in the years that followed. The biggest to date is the ZeniMax Media QA union which voted yes in January. Employees of Activision Blizzard, whose company is still the subject of a takeover attempt by Microsoft, have so far formed two unions under the company.
Today’s victory by Sega of America employees is part of a larger movement of game workers pushing back on industry standards that promote brutal overtime, discrimination and unequal pay. Just last week, a former employee of pokemon go developer Niantic sued the company over an alleged culture of gender discrimination and sexism that devalued women. With the seat at the bargaining table offered by a union, workers want to have a say in workplace activities and hold leaders accountable for issues such as those alleged at Sega and elsewhere.