Video game employees at Sega of America are now the first workers at a big North American gaming company to vote in favor of a union contract. This could be an important moment for labor in an industry that has often had unstable employment. Uninionizing doesn’t always lead to better situations, but this is starting out positive.
Sega of America’s Southern California offices have ratified a new contract that affects about 150 employees (Thanks, Bloomberg). The contract covers various divisions, including marketing and other departments. Under the new agreement, union members will receive minimum annual salary increases of 4% in 2024, 3% in 2025, and 2.5% in 2026.
Workers will also gain from other important rules such as a “just cause” policy, specified benefits, and a dedication to guaranteeing all team members who contribute to a project are properly recognized.
Unionization efforts in the North American video game industry have been increasing lately. Workers at studios such as Microsoft-owned Activision Blizzard and ZeniMax are pushing for contracts. This movement has been particularly strong among quality assurance (QA) testers, who often mention working too much, not being paid enough, and feeling disposable.
The new contract at Sega of America now protects employees facing layoffs. These include a notice period before layoffs and a minimum severance package of two weeks, with a maximum of eight weeks. Like many other big companies, Sega has been affected by the thousands of layoffs (Per GameDeveloper)in the video game industry this year.
So this means that Sega can’t just lay workers off to make up for lost revenue. This tactic is often used in business to lower expected loss, and hurts pretty much everyone involved. However, since Sega is for it, this may be them leading a change, like they did during the establishment of the ESRB.
The agreement with Sega, the company behind the famous Sonic the Hedgehog games, could motivate more workers in the industry to form unions. This move might influence employees at other companies to consider organizing when they see the possible advantages that a union agreement can offer.
As a former law enforcement officer, I’ve seen the upsides and downs of unions. I’ve seen great unions like the Fraternal Order of Police and bad unions, which I won’t name. Whether or not they help is dependent on those in charge, so we’ll have to wait and see where this goes.
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