Today, workers at Sega of America’s Irvine, Calif., office filed a union election application with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). New Guild, Allied Staff Guild Improves Sega (Aegis), in partnership with Communications Workers of America and made up of an overwhelming majority of 144 employees across Sega’s Quality Assurance, Localization, Direct Service, Marketing and Product Development departments, making AEGIS the largest video game union in the United States made up of workers across many departments.
the edge Had the opportunity to speak with workers before filing who talked about their experience with Sega, the organizing process, and what it means to be part of a small but growing union force in the video game industry.
“Our workers and our audience deserve the games made by the people who make a living wage,” read the mission statement announcing the AEGIS Federation. “In our quest to regain our collective strength, we have built bridges with fellow employees from across our company in an effort to understand our common issues, and those that are unique to each department.”
AEGIS is the largest video game association in the United States and consists of various divisions. To date, quality assurance departments have led most of the country’s video game unionization efforts. In 2022, California-based virtual reality-focused studio Tender Claws Human Union becomes the first divisional video game studio in the United States.
Regulation has been going on at Sega for over a year now. According to Emma Geiger, interim translation editor, remote work and isolated departments have made initial efforts difficult.
“They (the group) started making friends, actually,” they said. “You’ll have a couple of people on your team that you hang out with after work. And then you’ll see someone in the office who may not have been on your team, but worked in the same place, and you’ll connect with them. That kind of bridges a little bit of the divide.”
A mutual love of the games she and her colleagues work on has facilitated the discussions and communication needed to get various departments involved in unionization efforts, said Tori Winkler, senior community manager. “Through talking about games with people in the localization or QA department was really how I started to learn about the unionization process,” said Winkler. She said that this communication has paid off.
“And Even as we were having discussions throughout the process, Winkler said, “It really helped me form connections with people that I wouldn’t have had a chance to talk to just in my day-to-day work environment.”
Sega of America is joining a slowly growing group of organizing game studios. Activision Blizzard subsidiary Raven Software launched a series of union campaigns within the company after its quality assurance team voted to organize in the wake of divisional layoffs. Another QA department, this time within Activision Blizzard’s Albany studio, similarly voted to unionize late last year. A third Activision Blizzard studio, Proletariat, announced its intention to unionize before this petition was withdrawn.
After Microsoft announced its intention to buy Activision Blizzard, it announced that it would take a neutral stance in any regulatory activity (in stark contrast to its potential acquisition, which has been the subject of numerous unfair business complaints). As a result, when QA employees at Microsoft-owned ZeniMax announced their intention to unionize, their labor organization was immediately recognized.
Neither Winkler nor Geiger said they encountered any anti-union sentiment from management and hope Sega of America and its Japanese parent company will voluntarily recognize the union.
“I really hope management understands that we’re not doing this out of any kind of animosity,” Winkler said. “We do this because we respect our co-workers and want to be able to create a sustainable workplace.”
the edge He reached out to Sega for comment.
Correction April 24 1:22 PM: Incorrectly stated that ZeniMax Workers United did not need to hold an election after Microsoft recognized their union.
Correction April 24 1:50 PM: Incorrectly stated that AEGIS would be the first multi-divisional video game association in the United States rather than the largest. In fact, the Independent Studios Tender Claws Human Union is a cross-section union founded in June 2022.