Activision workers have an unusual plan in the video game industry: unionize

The waters go down churning behind the walls of Activision Blizzard. Beyond the exorbitant Microsoft purchase operation to acquire the firm for almost 70,000 million dollars or the controversies that surround its CEO, Bobby Kotick, the company responsible for franchises as successful as ‘Call of Duty’, ‘Diablo’ or ‘World of Warcraft’, has been facing turbulence in its workforce for some months now. Activision has faced a long strike and complaints that have ended up crystallizing in a rare movement in the industry of the large US video game manufacturers: part of its employees have launched the legal machinery to form a union.

The move starts from the QA area of ​​Raven Software, one of the Activision Blizzard studios with a presence in the development of such successful games as ‘Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War’ or ‘Call of Duty: Warzone’. His decision comes after the dismissals of 2021, which particularly affected his own department. By early December they had lost their jobs at least a dozen from the QA area testers, which would have looked like this reduced by 30%.

Mediator yes, mediator no?

In reaction, the staff took drastic measures: they opened a donation fund and called a strike who had the support of other employees and remained active until very recently.

That the strike has been called off does not mean, however, that Raven Software employees have seen their claims addressed. If they decided to take the step, it is because they had previously created the Game Workers Alliance union hand in hand with the Communication Workers of America and they hoped that the leadership of Activision would voluntarily recognize them as such.

That step, however, did not come to pass. Days after the end of the strike transcended that the company was refusing to give the union its blessing, leaving it on another, more complex path to official status: a supervised vote by the National Labor Relations Board.

“We believe that all employees at Raven should have a say in this decision,” Activision argued in a statement in which he reports his position on the union.

The movement, in fact, had very little that was unexpected. Shortly before, in December, when it detected the first movements to organize the workers’ platform during the strike, the directive had already addressed to its employees to appeal to a direct dialogue, without intermediaries. The multinational came to slide in a note that the trade union movement promoted by Raven seeks to organize only a couple of dozen of the almost 10,000 employees that the company has.

Via Twitter, Communication Workers of America (CWA) also denounced an attempt by the company to dilute the union movement with a change in the organization chart of the company: “Yesterday, Activision broadcast its plans to restructure Raven Software’s quality control department with the in order to align the group ‘…with best practices from other leading Activision studios’. This announcement, which comes three days after Raven QA workers publicly requested recognition of their union, is nothing more than a ploy to frustrate Raven QA employees who are exercising their right to organize.”

The company’s refusal to recognize the Game Workers Alliance (GWA) union is in any case nothing more than an obstacle in its path. Your promoters from the Raven QA area have already announced your decision to move on and file a union election with the National Labor Relations Board. In the background is the complex union system of the United States, which requires GWA to collect at least half plus one vote within its department.

The 34 employees involved in its start-up assure in any case they enjoy “a large majority of votes.” If the union finally manages to form, Activision will have to negotiate working conditions with it. Issues such as better wages and working conditions could be put on the table. The body promoted from the ranks of Raven would not be a pioneer in the sector – not long ago it was formed in the US.Vodeo Workers United— but it would become first linked to a major video game manufacturer in the country’s industry.

A year marked by controversy

The union conato is not the only front of Activison in recent months. It is not even, in all probability, the one that has generated the most dust. In 2021, the company has been marred by controversies that call into question its business culture and the role of front-line managers. In July, the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing filed a lawsuit against the multinational for discrimination, inequality and allowing gender-based harassment.

The Californian body decided to sue the multinational for allegedly discriminating against its employees and creating a “breeding ground for harassment”. Specifically, it censures that inappropriate behavior has allegedly been ignored and women are relegated to lower salaries than those charged by their colleagues. It even echoes complaints against one of the former leaders for allegedly participating in the “harassment blatant sexual intercourse with little or no repercussion”.

At the beginning of the year it emerged that, after the scandal, the company had fired 37 employees since last summer as a result of an internal investigation that sought precisely to clean up the company. to another 44 disciplinary measures would also have been applied to them. The controversies that shook the firm also had a response from the workers.

The biggest bombshell that has starred Activison in recent months, however, has a very different character and is framed in the pages of the economic chronicle. In what will probably be one of the largest operations in the sector in 2022 -if not in the rest of the decade-, a few weeks ago it was made public that Microsoft will buy Activision Blizzard for the incredible sum of $68.7 billion. The operation is still subject to regulatory approval, but Microsoft trusts in which it can be closed in the short term, in fiscal year 2023.

Waiting to see if this movement affects in any way the business culture of Activision Blizzard or the union conat that is brewing strongly in its ranks, Phil Spencer, CEO of Microsoft Gaming, left a brief reflection when announcing the operation of purchase: “We deeply value the individual cultures of the studios. We also believe that creative success and autonomy go hand in hand with treating each person with dignity and respect. This is the commitment of all teams and all directors. We are looking forward to extending our proactive inclusion culture to the great teams at Activision Blizzard.”

Cover Image | Marco Verch (Flickr)