Sega of America employees want to unionize

I'm sorry I don't agree mate. Unions are scum most of the time and don't project workers' rights and cripple the UK.
But I do agree with the principle of people should be allowed to join one, if they want too

 

What, specifically, didn’t you agree with about my post?

There are - and have been - major benefits brought to workers over the years by unions in the UK, but I appreciate and am aware of that, like anything in life, there are problems that will affect people one way or the other. The point is that, over here, employers are not allowed to treat employees unfairly if they join a union. I don’t think anyone would argue that, in principle, unions are anything but good for employees and thus, the general populace, so we seem to be on the same page.

I have to add though, that I am not an expert. Like anyone, it pisses me off when my train journey is inhibited, or my post is severely delayed. I’m not going to pretend to know the ins and outs of both sides; I’m simply a simple man trying to make his way in the universe.

 

Most of so-called workers' rights were given to workers as countries mature, like paid holidays Ect, hell even Scrooge allowed his workers a day on off for Christmas on full pay.

Unions may have done good in the past, but now they're too political in the UK and too often hold a country to ransom (to me if you work in the Public sector you shouldn't be allowed to strike, but be able to work to rule)
And don't get me started on the Union being there to protect workers. I work 12 and half hour shifts we're meant to be entitled to a cooked meal, only we have no canteen on the weekends or after 2PM on a weekdays, and only have 2 'unpaid' breaks , one of which is only 10 mins in the morning, there's meant to be one staff nurse to 8 Paitients (yeah right) and on Night shift there's only 2 RGN on duty anyway and RGN's get paid via overtime, while HCA's get paid on the bank (and pay higher tax) so much for the Unions looking after staff. I could list, so much more...

The only reason most people I know join a Union is in case of unfair dismal (fair enough) . I also found it sick that after what people went through on Covid with lockdowns and not being able to see families over Christmas that for the 1st Christmas when we had no restrictions for the Rail Union to go on strike. That's why I lost any time for the Unions, because that was sick and plain nasty

I've no time for most of them myself, sorry . But I do agree with people having the right to join one though

 

This isn't a politics forum, and for good reason, we don't need to know whether people support of don't support unions, or the pros and cons of them. Let's just keep to the facts of this story as it relates to Sega.

 

There's not much to discuss then.

For my part, I have removed myself from the politics of this thread for various reasons, one of those being that I (and I suspect a handful of others) come here in part to ESCAPE politics that are injected into literally everything else around us.

But it's literally a thread about unionization at Sega of America. It is inherently political. The only way we avoid "discussing politics" is if we all just bandwagon and agree that this is a wonderful thing for everyone involved, and that the gaming industry has issues that only unionizing can resolve. And if we did all agree on all points, there still wouldn't be much to discuss. It's the very existence of the antithesis that allows the discussion to persist at all.

Respectfully, if I'm wrong, then prove me wrong by adding something of substance here instead of saying nobody should discuss politics. Otherwise we all have to censor ourselves.

 

Genuinely

It's about as relevant to us as "Sega of America bought a new coffee machine"... although come to think of it, that's probably in the scope of the Sega Retro wiki (as is this attempt(?) at making a union).


I imagine some people need to brush up on "the politics" but the video game industry is very exploitative. People want to work in video games, so those managing the payroll can create a culture of long hours and low pay. Because you want to be there right? It's a priveledge working on a Sonic the Hedgehog game! Don't like the working conditions? We'll replace you with a younger model who wants to work on Sonic even more! There's plenty of them!

So the idea is if you've got a workers union, the collective can bargain for better conditions - if everyone leaves at once, there is no company. The problem, when you've got a high turnover of staff, is that it's very difficult to get the numbers to make such a scheme work, which is why it's relatively new to video games. And you could still sack people en masse, or not hire them in the first place, or whatever.


This is a very different story to situations typically seen in the public sector, where the boss is "the elected government". When inflation is running at 10% you can start playing games - the teachers got a pay rise? I'm a nurse, I want a pay rise too! And I collect your bins, I want one, and that's more important than teaching maybe. They're all a bunch of chancers!.. except oh some of them literally can't afford to eat, which probably won't win us many votes. Unless they starve. But then there's no public service people have paid for. It's almost like it's a debate that could run for 200+ years.


All I'd say about this Sega situation is... it's a stupid name for a union. Not that I have a better one (yet) but it feels like the came up with "AEGIS" first to they could have their little jokey slogan, then worked backwards. There must be a better pun.

 

Union won. Congrats to all involved.

 

Phenomenal news!!! :D

 

Hopefully the union doesn't impose the same attitude as their logo with the fist, which reminds me more of some revolution than a union.

 

It's the symbol of communism.

 

Not to backseat mod, but I do think people should keep in mind we have a board-wide no-politics rule.

Anyway, my 2p: I’m not going to pretend I know anything about the intricacies of the pro-/anti-union debate but if this leads to better working conditions within Sega (a company notorious for being terrible to work for) that is good.

 

Oh I wasn't referring to any posts in particular, I'd just gotten around to reading this thread and just thought saying that wouldn't hurt. Thanks for the assurance!

 

You know what you're talking about.

 

The sad thing is I can't say what I want to say, because we have to forego common sense for the sake of holding a purist take on the "no politics" rule as we try and discuss a topic about Sega that is inherently political. Makes it very difficult to openly disagree with the majority here.

Not to be political or break any rules, but look up Bolivarian Revolution on Wikipedia and see how any sense of negatively is completely and utterly absent from the article (and probably on purpose! ). Just an example of how unreliable a simple search can be. You have to dig a little deeper than that.

My bias aside on unions in general, the logo alone makes me nervous about who's running the show. Their Twitter account raises a few eyebrows too, at least with me. I have a whole lot more to say, but I've already said too much.