It’s been a big year for unions in and around the video game industry, but not all of them have had it so good. Major companies such as Electronic Arts and Sega have eliminated unionized workers’ positions with layoffs that have struck some workers and others in the industry as, at best, conspicuous in their targeting. But workers aren’t going down without a fight.
Earlier this week, workers at Sega of America claimed that the company is trying to lay them off for unionizing in July of this year. When it formed, the 200+ member Allied Employees Guild Improving Sega (AEGIS) called itself “the largest multi-department union of organized workers in the entire gaming industry.” According to AEGIS, Sega now intends to “phase out” temporary workers by February 2024, resulting in mass layoffs that stand to impact 40 percent of the AEGIS bargaining unit.
In October, layoffs hit Keywords Studios, a quality assurance company that had been supplying testers to BioWare for its long-awaited fantasy tentpole, Dragon Age: Dreadwolf. Keywords was notable not only for its association with BioWare and publisher Electronic Arts, but also for a successful (16-0) unionization vote among contractors working with BioWare in 2022. As part of its own round of layoffs, BioWare dropped the Keywords contract. Shortly after, Keywords laid off all of its unionized employees, blaming the loss of the BioWare contract.
In both cases, workers have not been quiet about their suspicion that something fishy is going on. On behalf of Sega employees, the Communications Workers of America (CWA) – which has also aided employees at Activision Blizzard and Microsoft in unionizing – this week filed an Unfair Labor Practice charge against Sega, alleging that instead of bargaining with AEGIS in good faith, Sega forced employees into mandatory “captive audience meetings,” where the company said it would be offshoring employees’ jobs to Europe and Japan.
“It's disheartening to see such actions from Sega, as it unmistakably demonstrates bad faith bargaining and a refusal to recognize the valuable contributions of a significant portion of our colleagues,” wrote Elise Willacker, senior QA tester temp and member of AEGIS, in a statement to Aftermath. “We have filed an Unfair Labor Practice charge to call out Sega’s direct dealing with members, and its breaching of the status quo by telling bargaining unit members that our jobs would be ending shortly. Sega will not be allowed to get away with this unlawful behavior. We call on the company to make all temporary employees permanent and return to the bargaining table in good faith. There is no other just alternative.”
Laid-off Keywords testers also believe they’ve been treated unfairly. Some don’t buy the company’s explanation that there’s no work for them without the BioWare contract.
"It's sort of an excuse to us,” James Russwurm, a laid-off Keywords tester and union rep, told Aftermath. “Our work with [Keywords] has not ever been conditional on any one contract. You're supporting lots of remote work everywhere. You're posting online that you've got all these job openings on your website. But you're specifically saying that you won't work with unionized workers in Alberta? That's why we're feeling like their intention is definitely to try and bust the union."
Aftermath reached out to Sega, Electronic Arts, and Keywords, none of whom replied ahead of publishing.
Last week, the Keywords union picketed BioWare’s Edmonton offices, a move BioWare’s parent company, Electronic Arts, attempted to block by trying to convince the Alberta Labour Relations Board that workers should picket outside their own homes instead. In a statement to Kotaku at the time, EA explained its rationale.
“We hope that Keywords and the union are able to resolve their differences but ultimately BioWare has no role in that process,” an EA spokesperson said. “It is our view that any activities targeting our offices are misguided as BioWare is not involved in any way in the negotiations and Epcor Tower has never been a place of employment for Keywords employees.”
However, the Board ultimately sided with workers’ choice to picket BioWare’s offices. Chris O'Halloran, executive director at United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) Local 401, which is supporting the Keywords union via UFCW’s strike fund, said that BioWare employees came out to support laid-off QA workers during the picketing.
"It was great to see, when we were out picketing, so many people from BioWare coming out, showing their support, bringing down coffee, and just stopping to talk," he told Aftermath.
Russwurm said that former BioWare workers – some of whom were part of BioWare’s recent round of layoffs and who are now suing over improper severance – also showed up in solidarity with Keywords picketers.
"It was good to see past and current employees from their offices,” he said. “When it comes to the line workers, I think they really understand why unionization is important and the protection it offers. A lot of them, the ones that were laid off, didn't have much of a recourse other than suing out of pocket. So I think a lot of them are being like, 'Oh yeah, maybe this unionization thing isn't so bad because I could work for this studio for 20 years, and then they could cut me like that, and I don't really have any sort of protection.'"
O'Halloran said that the tactic of laying off contracted workers who’ve unionized is common in other industries.
"The tactic that BioWare and Keywords used here, we see all over the place,” he said. “We're dealing with it in the oil and gas industry. We just saw it in the security guard industry, where companies will create this corporate shell game of subcontracted [companies], to which the people at the top are calling the shots, but they create these shells and say, 'Listen, these people don't actually work for us; they don't actually have anything to do with us. And we're canceling this contract.' But the only people they're targeting with this are their unionized staff. And it just doesn't pass the smell test."
Former Keywords workers have stopped picketing for now, but they continue to vociferously demand that their jobs be reinstated. In the coming weeks, they – with continued support from UFCW Local 401 – plan to take the fight online by employing targeted advertising campaigns and things of that nature on sites like LinkedIn, with the goal of putting pressure on Keywords in places relevant to their business. They’re also starting a Twitch channel where they intend on talking with labor organizers and educating people in and around the video game industry. UFCW Local 401 is also working with both the Alberta and national labor boards to begin the legal process around this, but O'Halloran said that in Alberta “that is a very slow process.”
“We're hoping that we can put some economic pressure on them as well,” he said, “to encourage them to come back to the bargaining table and do the right thing.”
