Workers at Sega of America, a division of Sega Sammy Holdings Inc., have officially ratified a union contract. . That makes it one of the first major North American video game companies to take this step, which could bode well for future organized labor losses in the industry.
After the workers, the contract was ratified last year. It includes about 150 people working in various departments across the company, including brand marketing, games-as-a-service, localization, sales and quality assurance. The union is called Sega Advancing Allied Workers Guild (AEGIS-CWA) and .
There are already some provisions for workers as part of the deal, including minimum wage increases of 4 percent in 2024, 3 percent in 2025 and 2.5 percent in 2026. There are also codified benefits such as layoff protection, health insurance, and severance. inclusion and obligation to credit all employees in games.
“We hope that in the midst of widespread layoffs, video game industry workers will see organizing as a way to improve working conditions for all of us,” AEGIS-CWA member Jasmin Hernandez said in a statement. to Engadget.
Sega was not entirely happy with the move towards labor rights and unions. The company faced an unfair labor practice complaint after announcing its plans of the union’s bargaining unit. Company as promised, but the union succeeded to agree employing many workers.
Labor is having a moment in the gaming industry. ZeniMax Workers United merged with CWA last year to 300 quality assurance employees. Over 600 Activision QA testers does it in video games. Avalanche Studios, Raven Software, and several smaller development studios have also merged in the past year.
