Former Nintendo Of America boss Reggie Fils-Aimé has spoken out about various reports of union-busting coming from within the company.
Last month, a report alleged that many contract workers at Nintendo felt the company had been abusing their position as part-time workers. It comes after a former employee accused the company of “coercive actions” and claimed it interfered with employees right to unionise, which Nintendo denied.
“It struck me, this isn’t the Nintendo I left,” Fils-Aimé said in an interview with The Washington Post. The former Nintendo Of America boss left the company in 2019.
“While I was at Nintendo, we routinely had meetings at events where our associates, that’s how we referred to our contract employees, were invited,” Fils-Aimé explained. “I was famous for doing bimonthly and quarterly lunches with employees. It was a basic sign-up, and associates were invited as much as full-time employees.”
Here's a snippet of The Washington Post's interview with former President and CEO of Nintendo of America Reggie Fils-Aimé:https://t.co/7ZHtFvgs7f
— Launcher (@LauncherWP) May 3, 2022
“I know I was able to achieve [a healthy culture at Nintendo], and certainly what’s being described does not seem like a healthy culture.”
“All of the things that are part of a job beyond salary, you need to look at all those elements and have a mentality of doing the right thing for your employees,” he continued. “I fundamentally do believe that if employees are being treated with respect and the work they do and the pay and benefits they receive are in balance, the need for unionisation isn’t there.”
Nintendo isn’t the only company facing NLRB action. Activision Blizzard is currently involved in a lawsuit filed to the NLRB, which alleges the company of using coercive tactics to undermine unionisation efforts. Efforts to unionise at at the company’s Raven Software studio are still underway, however those involved were recently excluded from a company-wide quality assurance wage increase.
Elsewhere, employees at Ubisoft are continuing to fight for improved workplace conditions at the studio.
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