Reggie Fils-Aimé tells game-industry leaders to embrace unions and move on

Today, employees at game developer Raven Software will get the results of their vote to unionize. This created an opportunity to ask key figures from the industry to give their opinions on unions. And former Nintendo of America boss Reggie Fils-Aimé told The Washington Post in an interview today that good leaders will embrace unions as a business reality.

“In many industries, unionization is a good thing,” said Fils-Aimé. “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 on.”

Fils-Aimé has had a long career even before his time at Nintendo. He specifically worked at Pizza Hut, which had exposure to numerous union-heavy professions including truck drivers. And he explained that in his experience, unions are something that capable leader learns to work with.

“I’ve worked in industries that have had high levels of unionization,” said Fils-Aimé. “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, issue, or opportunity that you face.”

Beyond unionization itself, Films-Aimé also spoke about the underlying conditions that are leading employees to consolidate their power.

“From my perspective, I do believe companies need to look hard at their practices and make sure they are creating a worker-friendly environment,” said Films-Aimé. “So many of these organizations that are in the news are there because of issues that are coming up. Again, it’s not one or two issues, but systemic issues that are running rampant.”