Sega of America workers file for union vote

Sega of America’s Irvine, California, office workers filed with the National Labor Relations Board for a ballot on the union. workers announced Monday. The union is called the Allied Employees Guild Improving Sega — or AEGIS — and partnered with the Communications Workers of America. Its slogan, “to be this good takes AEGIS,” is a play on an old Sega tagline.

The unit currently includes 144 roles at the Irvine, California headquarters and across departments — marketing, games as a service, localization, product development, and quality assurance. Sega of America Irvine will house up to 238 Sega of American staff when it opens in 2022. AEGIS CWA was the first union in the industry to include multiple departments at a large company. Activision Blizzard employees tried something similar at Proletariat, based in Boston earlier this year. The video game industry’s unionization push has largely been led by QA workers and indie studios; Tender Claws Human Union was among the first of these studios to span several departments.

“Working for SEGA is a passion for many of us and it’s been so exciting to see that through organizing, we can make this work a sustainable long-term career,” QA lead Mohammad Saman said in a statement. “By creating our union, AEGIS-CWA, we’ll have a say in the decisions that shape our working conditions and ensure the job security and working conditions we deserve. We’re excited to protect what already makes SEGA great, and help build an even stronger company, together.”

Sega of America workers, who work on franchises like Sonic the Hedgehog and Persona, are looking to secure higher base pay for all unit members alongside raises that meet inflation levels, improved benefits, clearly outlined promotion and advancement plans, balanced schedules, and “adequate staffing” to “end patterns of overwork,” workers said.

Sega Sammy, which is the holding company for Sega and Sammy Corporation after the 2004 merger, announced in February that Japan-based employees would see a 30% salary increase “further stabilize employee income and create a more comfortable working environment, as well as to further strengthen its global competitiveness,” according to GamesIndustry.biz. It did not apply outside Japan. The salary increase followed previous increases in wages by Japanese companies like Nintendo and Capcom.

Sega of America has not responded to Polygon’s request for comment. Two Sega of America workers and union members told The Verge they hadn’t experienced union-busting from management; they’re hoping leadership will voluntarily recognize the union. A date hasn’t yet been set for the union election.

The union announcement is another milestone for the video game industry’s unionization efforts, which kicked off in earnest when workers at the defunct indie studio Vodeo Games announced its union in late 2021. The games industry has seen a rise in unions since then. They have appeared at all levels of the game development and sales industries, from large to small video game developers. Activision Blizzard has set up two QA Unions within its Blizzard Software and Raven Software Studios, as they work to get Microsoft approved for its purchase. Microsoft, for its part, has pledged neutrality toward unions, and from that, ZeniMax Media QA workers voted to unionize, sidestepping the NLRB’s process to vote through authorization cards and an online portal. Should Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard acquisition go through, the neutrality deal will apply to all Activision Blizzard studios, too.

Game workers across industries have been historically pushed to their limits through brutal crunch, low pay, and discrimination; it’s been well-documents for years in both lawsuits, on social media, and the press. In the past years, game workers across industries have taken a stand against this and want to be able to discuss their rights at the table. It’s a reflection of a wider movement in the United States as workers take on bosses at major corporations like eBay, Starbucks and Amazon.