The overwhelming majority of workers at Sega of America announced today that they have formed a union under Telecommunications Workers of America, seeking voluntary approval from the company’s management.
Based in Irvine, California, the group consists of 144 employees in departments such as brand marketing, games as a service, localization, marketing services, QA, product development and operations. Calling themselves “AEGIS-CWA,” they petitioned the National Labor Relations Commission for union elections, but no elections will take place unless Sega of America management voluntarily approves the union first. I won’t break it.
AEGIS has stated the following goals in its mission statement:
- As per industry standards, pay raises are linked to cost of living and inflation to raise everyone’s base salary.
- Improved and stable benefits for all, including healthcare, retirement and remote work opportunities.
- Increased clearly outlined opportunities for promotion.
- Balanced workload and schedule and defined responsibilities for every position.
- Appropriately staff each department to end patterns of overwork.
“Working at Sega is a passion for many of us and it is very exciting to see that through organisation, we can turn this work into a sustainable long-term career. We have a say in decisions that shape our working conditions and ensure job security and the working conditions we deserve.We will protect what makes SEGA already great and build an even stronger company together. We are excited to be building on
Sega of America employees have joined many other game studios that have filed for union recognition with the CWA in recent years, including employees of Raven Software QA, Activision Blizzard’s Blizzard Albany, and Microsoft’s Zenimax Media. Discussions about unions across the industry have been going on for a long time, but the recent surge is the result of a shift in more positive attitudes towards unions and a growing awareness of working conditions in the industry.
Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. you can find her on her twitter @duck valentine.
