Tag: unionizing
The game studios changing the industry by unionizing
Union interest is growing in the gaming industry
Activision Blizzard developer Proletariat is unionizing
Workers at Activision Blizzard owned developer Proletariat have formed a union. Notably, the union includes a wider variety of studio departments, from QA testers to animation, design, engineering, and production employees.
We are excited to announce that the workers of Proletariat have asked management to voluntarily recognize our union, the Proletariat Workers Alliance. 1/14 pic.twitter.com/JtYTCvJT5XDecember 27, 2022
As reported by Game Developer, the Proletariat Workers Alliance (PWA) has asked Activision Blizzard management to recognize their union voluntarily. They’ve formed their union with another nationwide union, the Communication Workers of America, or CWA, and have filed to form a union with the National Labor Relations Board, the body that governs union elections in the United States.
Proletariat is the developer behind multiplayer game Spellbreak, which will shut down early next year following the company’s acquisition by Activision Blizzard. The developers at Spellbreak will now work on World of Warcraft.
In a press release from the CWA, Dustin Yost, a Software Engineer at Proletariat, said that “Everyone in the video game industry knows Activision Blizzard’s reputation for creating a hostile work environment, so earlier this year, when we heard that Blizzard was planning to acquire Proletariat, we started to discuss how we could protect the great culture we have created here. By forming a union and negotiating a contract, we can make sure that we are able to continue doing our best work and create innovative experiences at the frontier of game development.”
The union is demanding flexible paid time off, remote working options, and voluntary overtime.
Activision Blizzard has had several teams at studios owned by the company unionize in the last year, notably the Quality Assurance teams at Raven Software and Blizzard Albany. This would be a full studio, markedly different than the specialized team-within-a-team that is QA.
Microsoft, which is seeking to buy Activision Blizzard, has already entered into an agreement with the CWA to remain neutral and streamline unionization processes should employees at acquired studios should they choose to unionize.
Proletariat. Remarkably apropos name, that.
Quality assurance staff at Microsoft’s ZeniMax Media are moving toward unionizing
Microsoft’s pledge to stay neutral in unionization efforts is about to be tested in a big way. On Monday, quality assurance staff at ZeniMax Media went public with the news that they’re working to form a union. The approximately 300 workers involved in the effort want to be represented by the Communications Workers of America (CWA). That’s the same union that recently helped QA staff at Raven Software and Blizzard Albany win their organization bids.
Microsoft did not immediately respond to Engadget’s comment request. A company spokesperson told The New York Times Microsoft was “committed to providing employees with an opportunity to freely and fairly make choices about their workplace representation,” adding the campaign was “an example of our labor principles in action.”
ZeniMax Media is the parent company of some of Microsoft’s most prized first-party studios, including Arkane, Bethesda and id Software. Microsoft paid $7.5 billion in an all-cash deal to acquire the publisher in 2020. A successful unionization bid would affect all the studios under the ZeniMax umbrella.
According to The Times, QA staff at ZeniMax began voting on unionization on December 2nd, the same day testers at Blizzard Albany voted 14 to 0 to join the CWA. Staff at the Microsoft subsidiary can share their stance on the matter by signing a union authorization card or by voting through an electronic portal. A decision is expected before the end of the month.
In June, Microsoft announced it would respect all unionization efforts at Activision Blizzard following the close of its $68.7 billion deal to buy the publisher. At the time, the company signed a landmark neutrality agreement with the Communications Workers of America. Antitrust regulators in the UK and EU are currently conducting investigations of Microsoft’s bid to buy Activision Blizzard.
Activision Blizzard illegally withheld raises from unionizing workers, labor board finds
Gaming giant Activision Blizzard unlawfully retaliated against workers at Raven Software who formed a union, the National Labor Relations Board found. The quality assurance (QA) department at subsidiary Raven Software, who mostly work on “Call of Duty,” announced that they would form a union in January. Activision Blizzard sought to block the union, reasoning that […]
Activision Blizzard illegally withheld raises from unionizing workers, labor board finds by Amanda Silberling originally published on TechCrunch
Activision Blizzard wants all Diablo 4 employees to vote on unionizing
Activision Blizzard lawyers want every worker to have a say in the vote for a union at Blizzard Albany, a new report from The Washington Post says. The argument came in the midst of National Labor Relation Board hearings to determine who should be allowed to vote on a union for the branch campus – the QA team, as was the case with Raven Studio, the first union formed at Activision Blizzard, or everyone across the company.
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