Sega of America workers are unionizing
Workers across multiple departments at Sega of America’s Californian office have filed for a union election, making its new union the largest cross-department video game union in the United States. The new union is called Allied Employees Guild Improving Sega, or AEGIS, and it’s partnered with the Communications Workers of America (CWA), much like other video game unions.
AEGIS is made up of a supermajority of Sega of America workers, with 144 members across the company’s QA, marketing, localization, product development, and live service departments. A statement released by the union says that its main goal is to establish “a culture of equity, diversity, and open communication,” as well as fair treatment for all employees.
The statement reads: “In our quest to reclaim our collective power, we have built bridges with fellow workers from across our company in an effort to understand our shared issues, and those that are unique to each department.”
“As one example,” it continues, “nearly a third of SEGA’s long-time workers still lack full-time status, paid time off, proper training, or even bereavement leave, despite dedicating years of their lives to SEGA.”
The union says it will focus on the following five goals:
- Higher base pay for all, following industry standards, with raises tied to the cost of living and inflation.
- Improved, stable benefits for all, including healthcare, retirement, remote work opportunities, and more.
- Increased, clearly outlined opportunities for advancement.
- Balanced workloads and schedules, and defined responsibilities for all positions.
- Adequate staffing of departments to end patterns of overwork.
It comes as part of a larger push for unionization in the games industry, with workers at Activision Blizzard, Microsoft, and ZeniMax all forming unions in recent years. Proletariat, Activision Blizzard’s newest game studio, also sought to unionize but withdrew its petition shortly after.
It’s been somewhat of a hot topic at some events too, as with The Game Awards last year when people wearing union badges had said badges taken from them by security. The games industry is known to be one of the toughest for workers, with crunch and poor working conditions rampant across large studios.
