The workers of publishing company Seven Seas Entertainment revealed that they have formed a workers union, named the ‘United Workers of Seven Seas (UW7S),’ as they found themselves overworked, underpaid and inadequately supported among other workplace difficulties.

In a statement released on twitter, the union said that the employees did not receive vacation, sick days, family leave, health insurance, and retirement benefits, which were otherwise typical in the publishing industry.

In their statement, the workers union said that as Seven Seas Entertainment continued to grow rapidly, the workers were forced to shoulder much of the pain that came with it.

It was for these reasons that the workers decided to form the union.

“With rapid growth comes growing pains, and we, the workers of Seven Seas, have been shouldering much of that pain. We find ourselves overworked, underpaid, and we do not currently receive the benefits otherwise typical of the publishing industry,” the mission statement on the United Workers of Seven Seas official website said.

“For these reasons, we have formed United Workers of Seven Seas (UW7S). We are invoking our right to organize and administer a vote to form a union.”

In addition to being underpaid and overworked, the union’s website stated that the new hires at Seven Seas were “set up to fail” with insufficient processes, redundancy, and poor training.

The United Workers of Seven Seas stated that they to negotiate better working conditions for both Seven Seas employees and the many freelancers who are employed by Seven Seas Entertainment.

The union is working towards achieving the following goals;

• Healthcare, paid leave, & pension benefits.
• Paid time off, vacation, & holiday breaks.
• Increased wages & transparent increase structure.
• Reasonable workloads, no more crunch.
• Secure employment status for all.
• Protections & benefits for freelancers.
• Clearly defined job roles & organization chart.
• Training materials & onboarding.
• A robust scheduling & admin department.
• Management training for all managers & supervisors.
• An end to exclusivity & anti-freelance contracts.
• Anti-harassment/discrimination policies & process for submitting grievances.
• Bonuses & vendor gifts.
• Reimbursement for costs.
• Inter-department communication.
• Increase staff for overburdened departments.

They are currently working closely with Communications Workers of America (CWA), who have helped organize and represent other workers in the entertainment and publishing industry.

Seven Seas Entertainment is an American publishing company located in Los Angeles, California. It was originally dedicated to the publication of original English-language manga, but now publishes licensed manga and light novels from Japan, as well as select webcomics.

This is not the first time the employees in a the anime-manga industry have complained about being underpaid. Recently, a string of voice actors had come to fore asking Crunchyroll to improve the wages that are provided to voice actors for their work.

Source: Twitter, Official Website