Nintendo Of America Named In Workers' Rights Complaint

I wonder how much is the result of the subcontractor. (If there is substance to the complaint.)

Never good for any company’s PR but it’s positive to see workers in the US actually trying to take on a corporation of this size. Great to see the steps being taken to unionise across the industry.

Wonder if Retro Studios will be involved in this little Nintendo controversy?

Well, Nintendo of America should stop working with them. Even if NOA did not create that environment, it's incumbent upon them to avoid it. Workers have rights, companies need to stop infringing on them. If NOA did create the environment, it's more so on them to resolve that matter and cease union busting.

another reminder that even if a corporation makes fun video games, that doesn't mean it is our friend.

Slightly related, but the UK distribution for Nintendo is (or was) absolutely shocking, and I wouldn't be surprised if that's partly because of bad working conditions. I had issues with Nintendo UK's tech team too. I gave up trying to complain to Nintendo in the UK. An absolute disgrace. I may have said at some point that Nintendo Japan would probably be ashamed of them and I thought about writing to Japan.

So many companies in the UK have absolutely disgraceful working conditions - it's an epidemic. So while some companies will be called out for it, many will still be getting away with treating their staff badly. There is also a bad customer service epidemic here, and I think when employers care about their employees, customer service is also likely to be better.

Although individual companies and people should be put to task where necessary, bad working practices are what society has encouraged.

Hopefully bad employers being highlighted will encourage more people to group together and speak out, and for more companies to reform.

Friendly reminder, when Nintendo shakes the shiny keys infront of their fans, they will completely forget this happened.

Lets start holding Nintendo accountable for their scummy actions, just like Activision and Ubisoft

Woo boy… well, at least this is Nintendo of America and not Nintendo of Japan where the bulk of the work is at. Im interested in seeing unions in the gaming industry though against the sloppy work that certain companies are doing.

Unions have their pros and cons; I will wait to see the outcome of this complaint.

There's no details on what the complaint is so I can't form an opinion on it...

@sadmapboi this may push NoA to expedite the release of GB/GBA games on Switch in an attempt to sweep this under the rug.

@Matty1988
This. Amazing how people in the comments have apparently already decided guilt with little to no information. Situations like this should see both parties as innocent until guilt, if any, is proven, and not the other way around.

Wait until the video-game industry unionizes and then see how much you pay for games and consoles.

@Burning_Spear Don't let NoA (or any other company) pit you against your fellow working class citizens. When any group of workers wins more ethical treatment and higher pay, we all win increased bargaining power at our own places of employment.

@Quantaur Yeah it probably should, but here we are

@CharlieGirl We can debate that, but I'll spare the NintendoLife readers. I'll see you in the next topic.

Interesting, wish there were more details as I do have temps from that agency working under me. Their reps always seem to want to do everything by the book...

@Burning_Spear I’m fine with whatever that would be

Well it definitely needs to be investigated but just a reminder for those in the comments that this isn't directly Nintendo at fault lol, they need to take responsibility still and fix it but just saying.

@YorkshireNed Might be worth making a phone call. If I had temps from the company I'd want more information as to what is going on.

@Burning_Spear

Just wait until slavery is abolished,
you're going to pay more for cotton!

And you're not going to like it when child labour in factories is banned!

The moral imperative comes first,
then industry has to adapt.

@Franklin agreed. Short-term economic pains for long-term social and economic gains! I'm always okaying paying a few bucks more if it means my money is being used to promote humanitarian initiatives and better work-life balance for employees.

@Wexter I doubt they'd be allowed to discuss it and as I'm based in a different state to Nintendo, probably nothing to do with the office I work with. I will say, hiring and firing and disciplinary decisions rest with us so IF something went down then it would fall on the big N. Of course, that's a big IF and I'll leave that to the courts.

What does not salting mean?

Too early to start making assumptions, let's see how this plays out.

where are those people that always announce they will stop buying games from a company when accussed of harassment? will do the same now with nintendo?

@CharlieGirl which, in turn, also bears reminding that normally people neither seek nor offer friendship with corporations they buy entertainment, fiction works and/or other products from. It's not a private grocery booth or bookstore in your neighbourhood, for Pete's sake. Most of us don't expect stuff like "loyalty" or "respect" from companies like Nintendo because we don't give them any of ours either - it's just a consensual and broadly amicable market relationship that lasts while it lasts.

Of course, fanship is a different story and can involve one-sided yandere attitudes to the matter for sure.😅🙄

@Matty1988 @Quantaur

Discharge
Coercive Statements
Concerted Activities
Coercive Actions

those are details, right?

@-wc- If that's enough for you to form an opinion, go for it. Sounds more like allegations to me

From my perspective, we all love Nintendo for their ethos of creating a collaborative, harmonious gaming atmosphere. So I think it’s right that we should expect them to treat their employees with respect too. If they have gone off the rails in that respect, action should be taken. I love Nintendo, but if they’re bad employers then it definitely would sour the experience for me.

Mr. Tostitos has always been a good reporter. I'll be eager to see where this story goes!

Some of y'all never worked in a union and it shows. In all honesty, people REALLY need to dig into how unions are to workers now too. The recent waves of them become more "clique-y" than some middle school recess yards. Going as far as ignoring complaints outright because it wouldn't fit the higher up's collective goals against Nintendo. Most who have grievances tend to still have them.

This is by no means an end-all solutions for people who just feel they're not getting enough from contracts people themselves signed when offered.

And this goes without saying the report is also vague to a point no one know what the hell happened, but most of the people here have already taken judgement and want blood.

Allegations from an unnamed worker. Excuse me while I draw out five miles of conclusions solely based on my anecdotal experiences and wikipedia knowledge. I'd also like to apply a nice bludgeon of political opinions directed at no one in particular.

Pleased to see the comments resisting the urge to make a joke about working for Bowser. Considering how image conscious Nintendo is, hopefully they swiftly address this.

I'll add that - in the case when I worked at NoA as a contractor via an outside agency - any decisions made in regards to training, discipline, benefits, rules, regulations, treatment, working conditions, etc fell solely on NoA and its employees. The only contact I had with my agency when there was for paycheck and time keeping stuff. Everything else was dictated by Nintendo.

So anything (if anything at all) comes out of this, it falls much more on Nintendo's doing than on whatever agencies they use.

Seems like Doug Bowser ain't doing his job very well compare to Reggie Fils-Aimé. Remember bad leader makes for a toxic work environment.

Shameful and disgraceful if any of this is true.

@CharlieGirl exactly

Remember: It's okay to like the people behind the videogames and the developers whilr hating the legal people and NOA higher-ups

Here we go again. Time to assume that every company is blizzard again. “Innocent until proven guilty” is a meme at this point since everyone will regurgitate anything that is claimed of what happened whether it actually has merit or not to spread on Twitter with zero repercussions.

It’s like people pretend it’s never the worker at fault or the worker could never have ulterior motives lol

@Coalescence Well played!

NINJA APPROVED

@Specter_of-the_OLED you use the word "seems" very loosely. You have no idea what the details are.

A lot of finger pointing going on for half a story, as usual.

@Truedoogie Which is why it was use, wouldn't use it if it didn't seem that way.

What does unionise mean?

@Quantaur this is the reason I frame it as "if," that wasn't just me saying "NOA is guilty." They may have done nothing, which I hope is the case.

honestly its really nice to see people's experiences plus everyone is more patient and helpful with each other with how this labor stuff is actually going on instead of the same annoying commentary youtubers or impatient little ***** (nintendo fanbase on twitter) not knowing how this process actually works and make it as if its the worst thing ever. the same old lines and text they all do

@IronMan30 honestly same here, im waiting to here both sides of the whole thing cuz of the differences of work culture between the west and japan (nintendo's main HQ), if japanese devs or employees did come out and said something, we'd know it

@Matty1988

i didnt offer an opinion, just that the number of details given was more than none 👍

@Fiskern another point also

My comment was removed because of unconstructive feedback. Well, it wasn't meant as feedback at all, so let me rephrase. We have next to no info on this case, and waaaaay too little to make a judgement on this case.

(I also said that it's good that labor issues are in the spotlight. However, I think articles with this little information simply water out the narrative)

It would be really nice to know more than what has been reported. We have no idea if this is widespread abuse or one person's misinterpretation of rules or anything in between.

Anything we discuss about the case right now is mere speculation. There are rules regarding possible unionization for both sides to follow — employer and employee.

Is it possible that Nintendo (or the subcontractor for Nintendo, either on its own at the behest of Nintendo) violated the rights of the worker to attempt to establish a union — yes.

is it possible that the worker either over-reacted to workplace rules (or enforcement of the in-place rules that govern the process for establishing a union) — yes.

In other words, we don't know what we don't know.