Employees at Sega’s offices in California have voted to unionise by a majority of 91 to 26.
Earlier this year, employees at Sega’s California offices signalled their intention to form a union under the name AEGIS (Allied Employees Guild Improving Sega). Now, the union has been made official, with 91 employees voting for the union, and only 26 against.
Back in April, AEGIS said that employees at Sega of America had been “greatly hampered” in their goal of making high-quality games by “lack of control over our own working conditions”. The union said it would seek higher base bay, improved benefits, opportunities for advancement, balanced workloads and adequate staffing.
In a Twitter post, AEGIS celebrated the successful vote, saying: “Our 200+ member union is now the LARGEST multi-department union of organized workers in the ENTIRE gaming industry.” AEGIS went on to thank other unions at gaming companies such as ZeniMax and Raven Software for “leading the way for game workers organizing in our industry”.
AEGIS is affiliated with the Communication Workers of America (CWA) union, just like the ZeniMax and Raven unions. The CWA is one of the largest unions in the United States, with around 1,200 chartered CWA local unions in both the public and private sectors.
“We can’t wait to see more workers join us in unionizing their workplace—together, we can ensure EVERY worker wins their fair share!” said AEGIS. It seems that the move towards unionisation is finally starting to gather pace in the US games industry.
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