Cold war.
A unionisation bid by QA staff at Call of Duty studio Raven Software will continue, despite Activision Blizzard missing last night’s 11pm deadline to respond and voluntarily recognise the group.
The bid will now be filed with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), an independent government agency.
Raven staff announced last week that they would attempt to unionise as part of the Communication Workers of America (CWA), and voted to begin the process of being recognised by their employer.
A quick resolution to this process – Activision Blizzard accepting the union bid – seemed unlikely. This week, Raven bosses also announced changes to its QA team structure, with the intent to embed workers around the company rather than in a specific unit – seen by some as an attempt to damp down the unionisation bid.
“We, the supermajority of workers at Raven QA, are proud to be confidently filing our petition with the NLRB for our union election,” the group wrote on Twitter last night.
“We are deeply disappointed that Raven Software and Activision Blizzard refused to uplift workers rights by choosing to not voluntarily recognise our union in spite of our supermajority support.
“This was an opportunity for Activision Blizzard to show a real commitment setting new and improved standards for workers. Instead, Activision Blizzard has chosen to make a rushed restructuring announcement to try and hinder our right to organise.”
We, the supermajority of workers at Raven QA, are proud to be confidently filing our petition with the NLRB for our union election. (1/5)
— Game Workers Alliance ?#WeAreGWA (@WeAreGWA) January 26, 2022
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“At Activision Blizzard, we deeply respect the rights of all employees to make their own decisions about whether or not to join a union,” an Activision Blizzard spokesperson said.
“We carefully reviewed and considered the CWA initial request last week and tried to find a mutually acceptable solution with the CWA that would have led to an expedited election process. Unfortunately, the parties could not reach an agreement.”
Raven staff this week ended the remaining elements of their strike action in the wake of staff’s unionisation bid – and after Microsoft announced it would be buying Activision Blizzard for nearly $70bn. That deal is not due to go through until 2023, however – here’s hoping this process is sorted out by then.
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