Network TodayNetwork Today
    What's Hot

    Where Are the Big Ideas?

    September 27, 2023

    Who is Jason Billingsley, accused of killing Baltimore tech CEO Pava Marie LaPere?

    September 27, 2023

    Fire at Wedding Hall in Iraq Kills More Than 100 People

    September 27, 2023
    Facebook Twitter Instagram
    • About
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms
    • Contact
    Facebook Twitter Instagram
    Wednesday, September 27
    Network TodayNetwork Today
    • Home
    • News
    • Politics
    • Business
    • Energy
    • Technology
    • Health
    • Lifestyle
    • Sports
    Network TodayNetwork Today
    Home » Workers at an Activision game studio say they are forming a union.

    Workers at an Activision game studio say they are forming a union.

    January 21, 20224 Mins Read Business
    Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr WhatsApp Email Reddit
    Share
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Email
    Image
    Raven Software helped create Activision’s popular Call of Duty video game. Credit…Carlo Allegri/Reuters
    Kellen Browning

    A group of workers at Raven Software, a studio owned by Activision Blizzard, said Friday that they were forming a union and wanted the prominent video game company to voluntarily recognize it.

    The newly formed union, the Game Workers Alliance, says it includes more than 80 percent of the 34 people in the quality assurance division of Raven, the Wisconsin studio that helps create Activision’s popular Call of Duty game. More than 60 Raven employees walked out in early December, protesting the company ending the contracts of a dozen temporary Raven quality assurance workers, which they said felt abrupt and unfair.

    “This is just the best thing for us and our company going forward, for us to have a voice,” said Erin Hall, a Raven quality assurance worker who helped organize the union. She said she hoped unionizing would lead to better job security, and that the Game Workers Alliance would be just “the first domino at Activision.”

    “I think a lot of us are motivated a lot by the fact that unionization in the games industry hasn’t really happened yet,” Ms. Hall said.

    Now, Activision executives will have to decide whether to recognize the union voluntarily or force a vote among employees, which would be overseen by the National Labor Relations Board.

    Activision, which Microsoft on Tuesday said it would purchase for nearly $70 billion, has been dealing with months of employee unrest. Before the company incited anger by not keeping the Raven workers in December, employees had been pushing for labor organizing and better treatment since July, when a California employment agency sued Activision, accusing it of fostering a culture where women were routinely sexually harassed and discriminated against.

    Jessica Gonzalez, a former Activision worker and one of the organizers of ABetterABK, a group of activists that formed in the wake of the lawsuit to improve conditions at Activision and its Blizzard and King units, said she hoped the Raven union, though small, would galvanize more labor efforts at the company — which has about 10,000 employees — and at other gaming publishers.

    “I think it’ll have a ripple effect across the industry,” Ms. Gonzalez said. “I’m hoping the rest of ABK will join our mission and help push this movement forward.”

    Unlike among European game workers, unions are rare in the North American gaming industry. Yet American employees are often subjected to unexpected layoffs and brutal “crunch,” in which they are required to work long hours and weekends for weeks at a time to ensure games do not miss deadlines.

    Interest in unionization has picked up in recent years, with groups like Game Workers Unite, Game Workers of Southern California and the Campaign to Organize Digital Employees, a project from the Communications Workers of America union, all working on efforts to mobilize gaming employees.

    In December, workers at the independent game developer Vodeo Games, which has about a dozen employees, became the first video game studio union in North America.

    The Raven employees’ organizing effort was shepherded by C.W.A., a prominent tech, media and communications union.

    “A collective bargaining agreement will give Raven QA employees a voice at work, improving the games they produce and making the company stronger,” Sara Steffens, C.W.A.’s secretary-treasurer, said in a statement. “Voluntary recognition is the rational way forward.”

    In a news release announcing the union, C.W.A. and the Game Workers Alliance accused Activision of using “surveillance and intimidation tactics, including hiring notorious union busters, to silence workers.”

    The organizing effort comes at a time of upheaval for Activision, given the blockbuster Microsoft acquisition, though Ms. Hall and C.W.A. both said the timing was coincidental. Some workers view Microsoft’s purchase of the company, which could take a year or more to close, as a path for Activision to improve its workplace culture.

    Others see it as an easy out for the company’s embattled chief executive, Bobby Kotick, who has been under fire since last summer and is expected to step down as chief executive once the deal is complete, according to two people with knowledge of his plans.

    During a company livestream Thursday with Julie Hodges, Activision’s chief people officer, Mr. Kotick told employees he promised Microsoft that he would “stay as long as is necessary to ensure that we have a great integration and a great transition,” according to a transcript of the conversation viewed by The New York Times.

    Mr. Kotick also addressed Activision’s culture problems, saying that the Microsoft deal “reinforces” his commitment to reforming the workplace, “and we’ve certainly recognized that we have opportunities for improvement.”

    He added that Microsoft “has been on its own journey to improve its workplace, and I think that it’s a shared journey.”

    Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email

    Related Posts

    Trump, Weighing In on Auto Strike, Has a Mixed Legacy on Unions

    September 27, 2023

    Las Vegas Hospitality Workers Authorize Strike at Major Resorts

    September 27, 2023

    TV and Movie Writers to Begin Returning to Work on Wednesday

    September 27, 2023

    Biden Administration Plans to Bring Back ‘Net Neutrality’ Rules

    September 26, 2023

    Overlooked No More: Alice Anderson, Who Ran Australia’s First All-Woman Garage

    September 26, 2023

    Top Apple Executive Defends Favoring Google on iPhones

    September 26, 2023
    Trending

    Where Are the Big Ideas?

    September 27, 2023

    Who is Jason Billingsley, accused of killing Baltimore tech CEO Pava Marie LaPere?

    September 27, 2023

    Fire at Wedding Hall in Iraq Kills More Than 100 People

    September 27, 2023

    8 people electrocuted as heavy rainfall and flooding sweep South African settlements

    September 27, 2023
    Latest News

    Moscow, Idaho police still searching for fixed-blade knife after suspect Kohberger’s arrest

    December 31, 2022

    San Francisco residents may be missing mail after postal carrier was robbed last month

    April 3, 2023

    Florida ex-wife of a slain Microsoft executive has hired a criminal defense lawyer

    June 14, 2022

    Pennsylvania man incarcerated for murder escapes prison, search underway

    September 1, 2023

    Man kills uncle, attempts to murder aunt after break-in: police

    September 1, 2023

    Yellen Reiterates That the U.S. Could Run Out of Cash by June 1

    May 15, 2023

    Network Today is one of the biggest English news portal, we provide the latest news from all around the world.

    We're social. Connect with us:

    Facebook Twitter Instagram Pinterest YouTube
    Recent

    Where Are the Big Ideas?

    September 27, 2023

    Who is Jason Billingsley, accused of killing Baltimore tech CEO Pava Marie LaPere?

    September 27, 2023

    Fire at Wedding Hall in Iraq Kills More Than 100 People

    September 27, 2023
    Featured

    With Ukraine Taking Firmer Stance, Peace Talks Grind to a Halt

    May 17, 2022

    Texas Judge’s Ruling Puts Free Preventive Care in Jeopardy

    September 7, 2022

    The Spanish police make an arrest in the letter bomb case.

    January 25, 2023
    Copyright ©️ All rights reserved | Network Today
    • About
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms
    • Contact

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.