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News SEGA of America Employees are unionizing as the Allied Employees Guild Improving SEGA (AEGIS-CWA) [UPDATE: First Contract Ratified]

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VolcanicDynamo

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Employees at SEGA of America are banding together to form a union! The Allied Employees Guild Improving SEGA, a branch of the Communication Workers of America, is a multi-department union, the first of its kind for a video game company in the United States. They are looking to improve working conditions at SEGA's Irving, California branch, and they are seeking voluntary recognition from SEGA.



Workers at SEGA have discussed their unionization work with Ash Parrish of The Verge, as covered in Parrish's article "Sega of America is the latest video game studio to organize":

Organizing at Sega has been underway for over a year. According to Emma Geiger, a temp localization editor, remote work and siloed departments made initial efforts difficult.

“[Organizing] started out with making friends actually,” they said. “You’d have a couple people on your team that you’d hang out with after work. And then you’d see somebody in the office who was maybe not on your team, but worked in the same space, and you’d reach out. That sort of bridges a little bit of a gap.”
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Torie Winkler, senior community manager, said that a mutual love of the games she and her colleagues work on facilitated the discussions and outreach needed to get different departments on board with their unionization efforts. “Through talking about games with people in the localization department or QA was really how I started to learn about the unionization process,” Winkler said. That communication, she said, has paid off.

“And even as we’ve been having discussions throughout this process, it’s really helped to forge connections with people that I wouldn’t have had an opportunity to talk to just in my day to day working environment,” Winkler said.
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I definitely recommend reading the full article for fuller quotes and more context behind current game dev unionization efforts in the United States compared to AEGIS. I'm rooting for all of the workers and hope that they can get their union recognized!
 

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Seriously tho, cool AF. More unionization in the industry is long overdue.
 
SEGA DOES WHAT NINT-

...well, either way good news to hear! Looking forward to this growing call for unions to take hold in the gaming sphere and improve conditions and take drastic steps to eliminate crunch and poor work environment conditions
 
Nice. Hopefully we will see more unions not only in the game development scene but among all industries in the US specially.
 
ermitron2 said:
So for someone not familiar with the process, what's the next step? Also what happens if SEGA doesn't recognize this?
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They will have to negotiate since this looks like they have formed the union already. If this was just to set up the drive for unionization, there could be lots of steps involved. If they can’t get a deal, they would likely go to mediation and then the National Labor Review Board would evaluate if they are at a true impasse or if the negotiations aren’t in good faith. Then compel the parties to keep bargaining. Not sure if California has some state laws as well that they have to adhere to
 
I remember reading that nintendo has a section mentioning unions, saying something like "so far, no unions yet" i wonder which one will be the first one.


Probably retro fucking lmao because of the history
 
Any unions in game dev can only be a good thing. Hope these guys and girls hit the ground running. It looks as though they've put a lot of thought and effort into this.
 
According to Emma Geiger, a temp localization editor, remote work and siloed departments made initial efforts difficult
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Can someone clarify what "Temp" means in this situation?

Based on my understanding, Temp Workers are hired through contract company. Thus employment is through the contract company and they have to unionize with the contract company. As seen with the Dragon Age QA or Nintendo Temp workers.

https://kotaku.com/dragon-age-4-bioware-labor-union-keywords-edmonton-1849025110

Have the full-time Sega employees managed to also come together as one with the contract workers?
 
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Between raising wages in Japan, winning highest metacritic of 2020, having money to buy Rovio, Sonic movies doing well and this; sounds like Sega is doing great.
 
Any updates on this? they tweeted about wanting recogniton by the 28th then never really tweeted a victory or a "we are very dissapointed" type thing, just some zine advert
 
Brofield said:
Most recent tweet

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I suppose that's not super surprising but like damn everyone who works there has seemed chill, but may be a facade or may be that the people in charge haven't really been public figures anyway like idk how much power the people who were tweeting about being behind the murder of sonic have

Anyway I signed it but I'm not entirely sure how much that matters, if this was like literally a petition for better work conditions it surely doesn't, but idk what signing does in the case of union election stuff
 
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Maybe should wait until (hopefully) approval to say this but I'm hoping this and Zenimax stuff we're seeing what will once be considered the start of something, like I hope in like 5-10 years there are more major game studios not unionized then are, even NOA one day ideally but NCL situation maybe complicates and I don't think Japan is on the precipe of this kind of moment at all unfortunately
 
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Also this somehow hasn't been posted here yet so obligatory (at least paid more work less but I feel with union leeway the ideal would go down anyway (tho this meme more referring to giant buggy open world games that push every particle effect up tbf, not SEGA games) but the principle can apply to everyone tbh
FwRThiCacAAVH0U
 
A bit late to the party, but...



Mark your calendars - June 16th is when Sega of America employees vote on their union!
 
Reminder: Sign the AEGIS Petition!
  • Index
    • With the recent reveals of Persona 3 Reload and Sonic Superstars on our minds, it's a good time to remind everyone of what else is going on over at Sega of America: an anti-union campaign by management to interfere in the union election:



    What AEGIS is asking for is not a boycott of Sega games. But what they do ask of us is to sign their petition calling on Sega management to remain neutral and let their workers organize. So sign the petition and spread the word: we can be equally excited for Sega games and for workers' rights!
     
  • Index


    • AEGIS recently had a mail-in election, and votes will be counted this Monday, July 10. I'm rooting for the workers to be able to form their union! There is still much to be done afterward, but given how early talks were able to produce solidarity and communication among the workers, I hope that leads to a win.
     
    VolcanicDynamo said:


    AEGIS recently had a mail-in election, and votes will be counted this Monday, July 10. I'm rooting for the workers to be able to form their union! There is still much to be done afterward, but given how early talks were able to produce solidarity and communication among the workers, I hope that leads to a win.
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    Have there been any updates on the stuff about Sega trying to block efforts to unionize, or what form those efforts took?
     
    chocolate_supra said:
    Have there been any updates on the stuff about Sega trying to block efforts to unionize, or what form those efforts took?
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    A few days before the mail-in election started, Sega workers presented the petition to management that they were getting signatures for. 4300 people signed in support of Sega of America management remaining neutral towards their organizing efforts.



    Naturally, Sega bosses haven't said anything directly in response. Easier to do nothing than incriminate yourselves, I figure. In either event, the mail-in ballots went out on June 16, and now we await the results.
     
    VolcanicDynamo said:
    AEGIS won their union election!



    With a vote of 91-26, AEGIS is now officially the union representing Sega of America employees. There's still a lot of hard work at the bargaining table with Sega management ahead, but this is a victory worth celebrating!
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    Sega does what Nintendon't 💙
     
    Mr Doggo said:
    I was wondering, if a union was to be made at noa, would it be just about NOA itself, or would it cover... let's say... Retro Studios? Or NST?
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    Retro is Texas so that’s a Sisphyian task on multiple levels. In theory it’s departments tho related ones may share a union group and it’s also going to be by branch group. So NOA HQ, Next Level Games, NST and Retro would all have to unionize individually
     
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