Last week, workers in Seven Seas Entertainment, a Los Angeles-based publishing company that sells licensed manga, web comics and light novels from Japan, founded the United Seven Seas Workers’ Union. The union claims that Seven Seas employees and freelancers are “overburdened” and “low paid”. But the company refused to voluntarily recognize the union.
Since its founding in 2004, Seven Seas Entertainment has become the “number one independent publisher” in the world by licensing popular manga such as Come on, Dark, Devilman Grimoire and LGBTQ + -centric manga like Bloom Into You i My lesbian experience with loneliness. While the success of Seven Seas, especially during the covid, has led to an increase in staff from 10 to 40, UV7S claims it has also left employees to “carry” the company’s growing pain without receiving “benefits typical of the publishing industry”.
On UV7S ‘ website, union workers have stated their goals, the main ones being benefits such as health care and paid leisure, UV7S policy claims that Seven Seas has no policy nor offers such benefits in its contracts. Other union goals include a reasonable workload, wage increases and the protection of freelancers.
“We work closely with the Communications Workers of America (CVA), who have helped organize and represent other workers in the entertainment and publishing industry,” UV7S said on its website. “As a union, we are trying to negotiate better working conditions for the employees of Seven Seas and for many freelancers who make this company what it is.
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In response to UV7S, Seven Seas issued a statement for Anime News Network on Saturday saying he would not voluntarily admit to UV7S.
“We respect the rights of our employees to choose or not to choose union representation. While a number of employees demanded that we voluntarily admit it [Communications Workers of America] as their legal representative - without [a National Labor Relations Board] “We have decided to respect the right of all eligible employees to vote on this issue,” Seven Seas said in a statement.
The company said it had already notified the National Labor Committee of the upcoming election, adding that it believed it would affect more employees than those seeking voluntary recognition, but did not specify how.
my box he turned to Seven Seas for comment.
Today on Twitter, UV7S claims that Seven Seas Publishing uses the time between elections to hire an Ogletree Deakins union-breaking firmwhich according to Business InsiderHe is accused of holding PowerPoints against “fear-inducing” unions amid the efforts of IKEA’s union in 2015.
Despite disappointment in Seven Seas ‘refusal to voluntarily recognize the union and Ogletree Deakins’ reported engagement, the US7S said my box she is confident that she will eventually receive recognition, even if Seven Seas forces this issue into the NLRB elections.
“We already have 32 of the 41 qualified members with signed union cards,” US7S said my box “And we firmly believe that trade union association is the best way to ensure equal treatment of all employees and freelancers, as well as the continued success of the company as our industry continues to flourish.