Corsair’s warehouse workers make pennies compared to CEO’s millions — and now they’re fighting back

polygon.com:

When a PlayStation 5 controller comes down the assembly line at Corsair’s Duluth, Georgia, warehouse, it’s disassembled to make way for new parts carefully installed by SCUF Gaming’s assembly team. SCUF’s bespoke PS5 controllers start at $200 and go up from there, upgrading Sony’s standard DualSense design with new grips, thumbsticks, triggers, and other modules designed for customizable, high-performance gaming. These controllers, whether it’s SCUF’s upgrades on PlayStation or the team’s versions of Xbox peripherals, have increasingly become a standard for professional gamers — precise tools for the demands of competition.

The people who put together these controllers are experts at their craft, cranking out hundreds of controllers per day even in the so-called offseason. One Corsair warehouse worker, who asked not to be named because they’re not authorized to speak about the business, said that they’re asked to produce 20 of these customized controllers per hour, adding up to roughly 150 PlayStation 5 controllers per day. Corsair will bring in nearly $40,000 for these 150 controllers, the assembly line worker said — “a lot more than we make in a year.” Corsair expects to make up to $1.55 billion in net revenue in 2023 across its Corsair, SCUF, Elgato, Origin, and Drop operations. Now, Corsair’s Duluth warehouse workers want to be compensated fairly for the labor that drives that value. Working with Teamsters Local 728, these Corsair and SCUF Gaming workers are heading toward a union vote with the National Labor Relations Board. The NLRB union election is set for Sept. 28, and 85 workers at the Duluth warehouse are eligible to vote.

“We make the computers people play games on,” RMA tester Max Madsen told Polygon. “We