Reggie Fils-Aime Tells Games Industry to Embrace Unions If That is What Employees Want - News

by William D'Angelo , posted on 23 May 2022 / 1,829 Views

The former head of Nintendo of America Reggie Fils-Aime spoke in an interview with The Washington Post discussing unions.

Fils-Aime said if employees want to unionize that leaders in the gaming industry need to "embrace" it and "move forward."

"There has been a much broader push for unionization across a range of different industries," said Fils-Aime. "And from my perspective, I do believe that companies need to look hard at their practices and sure they are creating a worker friendly environment.

"And unfortunately so many of these organizations are in the news, you know are there because there are issues coming up. Again not one or two issues, but systemic issues that are running rampant in organizations. So that is certainly giving rise to a mentality of more unionization.

"I also think the last two and a half years with COVID have created some really challenging situations across so many industries. Whether it is the hospitability industry. Whether it is the video game industry. It has been a lot tougher to do work and to do good work in these types of situations. So that is also giving rise to this push for unionization.

.@Reggie tells @MikeHumePost, "I've worked in industries that have had high levels of unionization. This is not a good or bad thing, it is a situation that as a leader, as an executive, you need to manage just like any other challenge, or issue or opportunity that you face." pic.twitter.com/UyLbrMWGeb
— Washington Post Live (@PostLive) May 23, 2022

He added, "In many industries, unionization is a good thing. And as a leader, you need to look hard, and if this is what your employees want, you need to address that, embrace it, and move forward.

"I've worked in industries that have had high levels of unionization. This is not a good or bad thing, it is a situation that as a leader, as an executive, you need to manage just like any other challenge, or issue or opportunity that you face."

Quality assurance testers at Activision Blizzards' Raven Software voted today to form the first major union in the US video game industry. There were 19 votes in favor of forming the union, called Game Workers Alliance, and three votes against it.

A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.