Nintendo Accused Of Union Busting In New Lawsuit
As unionization efforts gain momentum among workers for mega-corporations like Starbucks and Amazon, attention has recently turned toward Nintendo, which is now embroiled with a lawsuit accusing the company of using union-busting tactics to prevent organizing among its employees.
The National Labor Relations Board reported that the company and its staffing company Aston Carter are accused of utilizing various methods to intimidate or coerce staffers against unionizing. The anonymous accuser's suit alleges the company engaged in "Concerted Activities (Retaliation, Discharge, Discipline)," "Coercive Actions (Surveillance, etc.)," "Coercive Statements (Threats, Promises of Benefits, etc.)" and "Discharge (Including Layoff and Refusal to Hire (not salting))."
Polygon was able to receive a redacted version of the unnamed staffer's lawsuit from The National Labor Relations Board. The lawsuit comes from a former employee who alleges they were fired because they "joined or supported a labor organization," implying the firing was done "in order to discourage union activities and/or membership."
Nintendo joins a long line of gaming companies caught in a wave of unionization efforts across the industry. Activision Blizzard is currently litigating a unionization effort from the QA team at its subsidiary, Raven Software. Vodeo Games recently became the first gaming company in America to unionize, and Voltage Entertainment writers recently won the right to unionize after a 21-day strike.
If Nintendo, who has yet to comment on the lawsuit, is bothered by the allegations, they surely aren't showing it publicly. Many found it strange that while Nintendo was hit with a grave lawsuit that could have potentially major consequences for its reputation, the company was blissfully tweeting pictures of Kirby.
Share Pin
Mistress Fortune
Here's an update on the situation:
Nintendo themselves have made a statement and they're saying it had nothing to do with someone trying to form a union, but rather the contractor was fired for the disclosure of confidential information
Also going with what RaccoonBL said below me, it's starting to sound like someone who was fired for a legitimate reason making up a BS excuse to get back at a former employer.
RaccoonBL
So three things.
First, let's at least be specific, from my understanding this is about "Nintendo of America" and not Nintendo as a whole. Though I'm not sure how unions in places like America would even effect places like Nintendo a company from japan. And this isn't denying that Nintendo could've had a hand in it either way.
Second, of course Nintendo has no reason to care. It is currently just one person compared to cases like Blizzard where is was waves of people. I'm not saying the person is correct or not, but the value is deminished by the likelihood that it is a bitter former employee being spiteful. While denying unionization is still bad, the reason most want unions is to finally get rid of crunching…which Nintendo by all info we know don't do. So the backlash in total will ultimately be tamer even if this does amount to something.
Third, I don't get this conspiracy that Nintendo would show something huge to get people away from negative press. The reality is that regardless of all the things that could be going on in the background, Nintendo is making hype stuff, and then the hype stuff tends to deliver. Of course they would want to show it off. This isn't like Blizzard who virtue signal things by changing their already in-game content to be more PC.
qx1511
I do recall Nintendo delayed releasing Animal Crossing for Switch for a bit primarily so it didn't crunch their workers doing so, and did the same for Reboot Camp (unfortunately now delayed indefinitely because a certain country decided to be a dickhead in late February), so I'd say Nintendo generally is a pretty alright game company to work for compared to AAA.
Still, I guess it won't hurt to have an investigation to make sure, like a "spot check" of sorts.
Mistress Fortune
The only reason for that conspiracy is due to a couple very odd coincidences that some people thought seemed "too well timed." Nintendo shut down a Melee tournament that was using an emulated version of the game and then did a Direct not long after, and when SiivaGunner (the original, not the parody) got multiple OSTs taken down they did a Direct also not long after. Another thing I've seen lumped into this is Nintendo announced their own Metroid 2 remake and a Mario battle royale after issuing C&Ds on the fan made takes on the same concepts. Again it's really only a coincidence since things like Directs and games are planned well in advance, and it's not like the legal team is in talks with the people who do the Directs or make the games to "run damage control" or something.