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SEGA of America workers win vote to unionize

AEGIS-CWA is set to become the biggest union in the video game industry.

Donovan Erskine

July 10, 2023 1:06 PM

AEGIS-CWA

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SEGA workers scored a massive victory in the fight for workers rights in the video game industry with a successful vote to form a union. Of the 170 votes submitted, 91 workers voted in favor of unionizing, and 26 voted against it. There were a handful of votes that were challenged and thus, not counted.

The news came from the employees themselves, as the news was shared from the official AEGIS-CWA Twitter account. “Our 200+ member union is now the LARGEST multi-department union of organized workers in the ENTIRE gaming industry,” the tweet reads. “So excited to celebrate this win & head to the bargaining table w/ @SEGA to continue building this company we love!”

WE WON!

We just won our union election 91-26.

Our 200+ member union is now the LARGEST multi-department union of organized workers in the ENTIRE gaming industry.

So excited to celebrate this win & head to the bargaining table w/ @SEGA to continue building this company we love! pic.twitter.com/2iy6loAruf

— AEGIS-CWA 💙 #UnionizeSEGA (@takesAEGIS) July 10, 2023

What happens next will be quite interesting, as SEGA decided not to voluntarily recognize AEGIS-CWA as a union when the group originally formed earlier this year, which led to today’s vote. While American video game companies have slowly been unionizing at some of the biggest companies, the movement has not yet reached Japan’s major players. Although this unionization was done by American Sega employees in California, it could set a precedent for SEGA proper, as well as other companies in the video game industry’s Japanese arm.

AEGIS-CWA follows in the footsteps of other notable video game unions in recent years, including those at Activision Blizzard and ZeniMax. Here’s hoping that the move will lead to better rights and conditions for the folks working at the iconic studio. It’s arguably not even the only piece of good SEGA news to hit in the last few days, as the publisher recently shared that it was scaling back efforts to produce games that feature NFTs and blockchain technology. For more news out of SEGA’s new union, stick with us here on Shacknews.

Donovan Erskine

News Editor

Donovan is a journalist from Maryland. His oldest gaming memory is playing Pajama Sam on his mom's desktop during weekends. Pokémon Emerald, Halo 2, and the original Star Wars Battlefront 2 were some of the most influential titles in awakening his love for video games. After interning for Shacknews throughout college, Donovan graduated from Bowie State University in 2020 with a major in broadcast journalism and joined the team full-time. He is a huge film fanatic and will talk with you about movies and games all day. You can follow him on twitter @Donimals_