Corsair warehouse workers make little compared to CEO, want to unionize

When a PlayStation 5 controller comes down the assembly line at Corsair’s Duluth, Georgia, warehouse, it’s disassembled to make way for new parts carefully installed by SCUF Gaming’s assembly team. SCUF’s bespoke PS5 controllers start at $200 and go up from there, upgrading Sony’s standard DualSense design with new grips, thumbsticks, triggers, and other modules designed for customizable, high-performance gaming. These controllers, whether it’s SCUF’s upgrades on PlayStation or the team’s versions of Xbox peripherals, have increasingly become a standard for professional gamers — precise tools for the demands of competition.

These controllers can be made by experts, and they produce hundreds per day in so-called “offseason”. One Corsair warehouse worker, who asked not to be named because they’re not authorized to speak about the business, said that they’re asked to produce 20 of these customized controllers per hour, adding up to roughly 150 PlayStation 5 controllers per day. Corsair will bring in nearly $40,000 for these 150 controllers, the assembly line worker said — “a lot more than we make in a year.” Corsair expects to make up to $1.55 billion in net revenue in 2023 across its Corsair, SCUF, Elgato, Origin, and Drop operations. Now, Corsair’s Duluth warehouse workers want to be compensated fairly for the labor that drives that value. These Corsair, SCUF Gaming and Teamsters Local 728 workers will be voting for a union with the National Labor Relations Board. The NLRB has set a date for the union vote on Sept. 28. 85 employees at Duluth’s warehouse will be eligible to cast their votes.

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“We make the computers people play games on,” RMA tester Max Madsen told Polygon. “We make the controllers people play on. We’re building these $250-to-$400 controllers, these $1,500-to-$5,000 PCs. When people eventually play on them, they don’t expect that there’s people like us sitting there and building them, piece by piece.”

Several of Corsair’s gaming computers cost more than the amount of money the person who put it together makes in two weeks, Madsen added. “You’re building more than what the company believes you’re worth in just a half a day.”

Corsair Microsystems is a computer hardware company that was founded in the year 1994. It specializes in peripherals for gaming and other electronic devices. In the years since, Corsair has acquired several companies including Elgato Gaming and Origin Custom PC in 2018, peripheral experts SCUF Gaming in 2019 and retailer Drop 2023. Corsair became a public company in 2020. According to Securities and Exchange Commission documents, Andy Paul, Corsair’s co-founder, still serves as the CEO and received a compensation package totaling $9.9 millions in 2022. (The SEC filing says the compensation “actually paid” to Paul weighs in at $4.5 million.) The “annual total compensation” for Corsair’s more than 2,000 workers has a median of $42,455, the same document said.

Madsen said that despite being at the company for years, he gets paid just 45 cents more than someone who’s just starting. Some employees got that 3% raise several months ago, which adds up to 45 cents, to adjust for inflation — something the workers say didn’t actually do much in that regard. Amarion sutton, a worker on the assembly line, says that the deadline for receiving the 3% raise has been moved. Amarion joined the team in October but was not eligible to receive it. The threshold now applies to new employees. Then,The adjustment was not made until October. The workers added that there are several people working at the Corsair warehouse who have multiple jobs or qualify for government assistance; they can’t keep up with their bills on just the Corsair salary alone, despite the hard labor involved.

“We’re not asking to bankrupt the company,” Madsen said. “We want a little piece of the pie, so when we go home, we can pay for groceries. We can pay for our kids to go to an after-school program.”

Beyond compensation and benefits, Corsair’s Duluth warehouse workers are looking to shore up job security and to improve communication and transparency. The Corsair warehouse increases worker count during the holidays — peak season — and “purges” workers afterward, a practice that has people on edge. “How do I know that I’m not next?” asked assembly worker Sutton. “We don’t know what we’re walking into,” another worker added. “All those people walked in thinking, Oh, I’m going to clock out and be back Monday. And that wasn’t the case.”

A union can’t prevent layoffs or firings, but Corsair warehouse union workers are looking for what it can do: ensure protections for workers to have a say in their workplace, and provide support for laid-off employees, such as in the form of severance and extended benefits. According to the three employees Polygon spoke with, Corsair is systematically removing benefits such as a grace time for clocking into work. Workers used to have five minutes for clocking in. Now, they are penalized if even one minute is late. “We have a lot of that,” Madsen said. “People are just, like, one minute late, and they can’t even make it through the doors to swipe their cards, and they’re being counted for being one minute late.”

The Duluth warehouse workers Polygon spoke to want to be able to address these issues transparently with management, instead of facing the constant fear of getting reprimanded — or worse. Corsair management has not responded to Polygon’s inquiries regarding the union, nor commented publicly on it. Peter List was hired by management to speak directly with employees, according to workers. List hosts the radio show Union Free RadioSutton described the meetings as “uncomfortable”. According to NLRB filings, Corsair also hired Littler Mendelson, a self-described union avoidance firm that made headlines for its approach towards Starbucks’ and Apple’s union campaigns. Sutton described the meetings as “uncomfortable.” Corsair also hired Littler Mendelson, according to NLRB filings, a self-described union avoidance firm that made headlines for its approach to Starbucks’ and Apple’s union campaigns.

“[Corsair] was willing to hire somebody to get us off of this, but they can’t simply hear us out,” Sutton said.