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Activision Blizzard subsidiary wins union vote
Despite multiple concerted union-busting attempts.
www.theverge.com
The Game Workers Alliance, the union of quality assurance workers at Activision subsidiary studio Raven Software, has won their union vote. The votes were tallied today and the union passed with 19 out of 22 votes with two challenged ballots. The election makes the Game Workers Alliance (GWA) the first union for Activision Blizzard and only the second formal union in US video game industry.
Glad to see union busting is alive and well at Activision. Luckily for them, my opinion of their company already could not be lower so this didn't effect my opinion on them.Activision Blizzard was persistent in its attempts to stymie the unionization movement. Days after the GWA formed, Raven QA employees were broken out of their single department and distributed across multiple teams. The company also failed to voluntarily recognize the GWA, triggering the election process. During that time, the company petitioned the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to determine that the voting unit be composed of Raven Software employees instead of just the QA workers trying to unionize, which could have potentially diluted the majority needed to formally elect a union.
Really encouraging to see unionization in game development. It is an industry that badly needs it and is notorious for long hours and low pay.
Disappointing but unsurprising revelation. Hopefully we can keep this recent increase in unionization goingIn a wholly separate but related matter, the NLRB said it has evidence that the Call of Duty publisher violated labor laws. In a report by Bloomberg, the NLRB stated that Activision Blizzard threatened employees, stating that they could not talk about wages, hours, or working conditions and implemented a restrictive social media policy that also interfered with employees’ protected organization rights. The news broke hours before the union vote was read aloud, and if the company does not settle, the NLRB has stated it will formally file a complaint. Activision Blizzard has denied the claims.