Sega of America Workers Ratify Union Contract, Protecting Hundreds of Staff

Sega of America union workers ratified their union contract, thereby protecting hundreds of staff from a variety of risks and threats.

The workers at AEGIS-CWA had signed their first contract with Sega one year after they were recognized as a legal union. The union revealed in a press release that the workers' vote to ratify the contract had passed.

Sega of America Union Workers Ratify Contract

Sega of America Workers Ratify Union Contract, Protecting Hundreds of Staff — Sega of America union workers voted to ratify their union contract, bringing protections for hundreds of employees and other benefits.
(Photo : Yuichi YAMAZAKI / AFP, YUICHI YAMAZAKI/AFP via Getty Images)

This allowed the contract to go into effect and included a number of protections for the union's workers. These include raises for all unit members, roughly 150 full-time and temporary employees, Just Cause protections, layoff protections, including a recall list and severance, commitment to crediting all workers on games they work on, and many more.

Sega localization editor and AEGIS-CWA member Em Geiger said that one of the union's most notable items in the contract is the grievance process. He said that they felt there was extra security knowing they have in place a system for bringing issues to the table, according to IGN.

Geiger said that if the company wanted to do something that the unit did not like, they could grieve it, bargain over it, and have their say in it before it was finalized. Citing the Just Cause, they have now become the second unit in the industry in North America to have such protections against arbitrary discipline and discharge.

It was in April last year that Sega of America workers first announced their plans to unionize. They cited their demands for better pay, improved benefits, and workload balance. The union had received legal recognition in July of the same year following a vote. It made it the largest multi-department union of organized industry workers.

Protecting Hundreds of Workers

The union encompasses Brand Marketing, Games as a Service, Localization, Marketing, Product Development Ops, Sales, Quality Assurance, and other divisions. But earlier this year, Sega of America laid off 61 staff as it moved to outsource QA and localization. This is a decision that impacted AEGIS-CWA members.

The new contract also includes a minimum pay increase of 4% in 2024, 3% in 2025, and 2.5% in 2026. Another member of the union, Jasmin Hernandez, said that they were hopeful that workers across the video game industry would see organizing as a pathway to improve working conditions for everyone, said Engadget.

However, Sega was not regarding the workers' move to gain labor rights and to unionize. The firm faced an unfair labor practice complaint following the announcement to lay off 40% of the union's bargaining unit. While some of these workers were let go, the union was able to reach an agreement to keep many of the staff members employed.

Geiger also cited the bargaining process with Sega of America as being challenging, noting that there were long hours, extra labor, and organizing resistance. He added that one of the most difficult things about the entire situation was the mass layoff of temporary employees. This was a reference to the cuts at Sega of America that were announced in January, according to Polygon.