Sega of America's game developers seem to have stepped up. On Tuesday, members of the company's North American division made history by ratifying the contract. This is one small step for gamers, but one giant leap for the tech industry. This is because the Sega labor union is the first major domestic video game company to conclude a labor union contract.
The union, known as SEGA of America's Communications Workers of America (CWA) or AEGIS-CWA, is comprised of 150 full-time and temporary employees across a variety of positions and departments. It's all a sign that the current labor movement is rapidly gaining speed (not unlike Sega's famous Sonic the Hedgehog). Along with Sega, video game developer Activision Publishing voted to unionize this month, making it the largest video game union in the country. Activision's owner, Microsoft, acknowledged the union's statements and the workers will now begin contract negotiations.
“This is a turning point for workers in the video game industry,” short animation production manager and AEGIS-CWA member Jasmine Hernandez said in a press release. She said Sega's victory means that contracts that protect workers and improve their conditions are “possible even if management initially takes a hostile stance toward worker organizing.” He added that he had proven that.
Over the decades, the number of organized labor has declined, reaching its current all-time low. The most powerful unions remained powerful, as largely working-class groups like the United Auto Workers and the Teamsters recently won record contracts. However, amid swirling worker dissatisfaction and demands for higher wages amid economic instability, the popularity and public support of trade unions has increased, reaching the highest level since the 1960s in 2022.
As the situation in the Bay Area escalated and many workers were laid off, developers wanted to be part of this hot effort. Sega employees seeking a piece of the union's success represent the tech industry's larger interest in organizing. Their efforts began during a hot summer for workers when workers began bargaining efforts after winning a union election last July.
The new contract outlines several protections, one of which is a guaranteed pay increase. Employees will receive annual raises of at least 4% in 2024, 3% in 2025 and 2.5% in 2026, Bloomberg first reported. Union members also secured severance pay, health insurance and a commitment to at least six more months of hybrid work for him.
Tech jobs have retreated from their heyday less than a decade ago as workers grapple with fears of becoming obsolete and a wave of layoffs. According to the 2023 BambooHR report, technology (and nonprofit) employee dissatisfaction is so severe that average employee satisfaction has reached a new low. One of the provisions secured by AEGIS-CWA was termination protection, specifically “employee recall rights.” layoffs for temporary layoffs and permanent layoffs, according to a press release.
“In the midst of massive layoffs, we hope that workers across the video game industry will see organizing as a way to improve working conditions for all of us,” Hernandez said.
In fact, the unionized YouTube Music workers who recently learned their contracts were terminated while testifying at the bargaining table are an example of how tech jobs aren't as easy as they seem. It became. “There’s this assumption that because we work at YouTube or because we work in the tech industry, we made six figures and made amazing profits. [and] I work completely remotely,” said Jack Benedict, a former worker who learned of his layoffs from the City Council podium and whose unionization efforts made headlines. luck. But “people were struggling to make a living.”
And as CEOs cut jobs in the name of pivoting to AI, technology employees appear to be especially vulnerable to new innovations. To protect against the intrusion of AI in the gaming world, SEGA members have included a clause in their contracts guaranteeing that management will give advance notice of any planned use of AI in the workplace. ing. ”
