Sega of America’s office in Irvine, California has just unionized, with the organization filing for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Under the name Allied Employees Guild Improving Sega (AEGIS), the union consists of 144 employees across multiple departments, including marketing, product development, QA, localization, and live service.
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An official Twitter account for the union has also been created, where the organization released a statement on its recent founding:
We believe that the passionate, hardworking people at our Irvine offices deserve a say in our working conditions, and we are joining together to advocate for change in our workplace.
This is our vision for the path forward. #UnionizeSEGA pic.twitter.com/G4v2TDl0kL
— AEGIS-CWA 💙 #UnionizeSEGA (@takesAEGIS) April 24, 2023
In an interview with The Verge, Sega employee and temp localization editor Emma Geiger revealed that the union had been in the works for over a year, with the organization of the group starting out by “making friends.”
[Organizing] started out with making friends actually. You’d have a couple people on your team that you’d hang out with after work. And then you’d see somebody in the office who was maybe not on your team, but worked in the same space, and you’d reach out. That sort of bridges a little bit of a gap.”
Another employee, Torie Winkler, who works as a senior community manager, also mentions that regular discussions among co-workers led to talks about unionization.
“Through talking about games with people in the localization department or QA was really how I started to learn about the unionization process. 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 has yet to officially comment on the formation of AEGIS.
Source: The Verge