Employees at SEGA of America have begun to unionize as the Allied Employees Guild Improving SEGA (AEGIS) under the Communications Workers of America (CWA), the largest communications and media labor union in the United States. The newly formed AEGIS-CWA, consisting of 144 workers from marketing, localization, testing, product development within SEGA, are set on improving office working conditions for their coworkers and to make jobs at SEGA “more sustainable.”
The organization listed some of their demands in their official statement including higher base pay, balanced workloads, improved stable benefits including healthcare and remote work opportunities and much more. AEGIS-CWA seeks recognition from SEGA of America in their fight for worker’s rights.
“Our workers and our audience deserve games made by people who make a living wage,” said AEGIS. “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.”
“…While these issues may affect each department to varying degrees, we come together as a united front and are committed to establishing a culture of equity, diversity, and open communication. Together, we will ensure fair treatment for all employees, regardless of position.”
The Verge interviewed many employees at SEGA of America including senior community manager, Torie Winkler around the difficulty of the unionization progress.
“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. “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…”
Sega of America workers are the latest within the video game industry to unionize, alongside QA testers at Activision Blizzard’s Raven Software, BioWare, Blizzard, and Bethesda. Sega of America has yet to comment on the formation of AEGIS-CWA.