Activision Blizzard worker organization

Last updated

ABK Workers Alliance (ABK standing for "Activision-Blizzard-King") is a group of organized workers from video game company Activision Blizzard. Formed in response to a July 2021 state lawsuit against the company for harassment and discriminatory work practices, the worker advocacy group A Better ABK organized walkouts and demonstrations against the company's policy and practices. The quality assurance workers of subsidiary Raven Software went on strike in December after part of the team was fired. The striking workers announced their union as the Game Workers Alliance in late January 2022 and offered to end the strike pending their union's recognition.

Contents

Background

California's Department of Fair Employment and Housing sued Activision Blizzard in July 2021 with claims of having fostered a toxic "frat boy" work culture in which women were routinely subject to harassment and discrimination. The company's dismissive response upset employees, who sought to see the company's workplace issues addressed. Activision Blizzard, worth $65 billion, [1] employs about 10,000 people. [2] A Better ABK, a worker advocacy group, formed in response to the allegations to push for company change. [3]

History

A Better ABK organized two walkouts at Blizzard Activision in 2021 in response to the sexual harassment case against the company. [4] In July, the group organized a "Walkout for Equality" for specific internal policy changes on topics including arbitration, diversity, and recruitment. Another walkout in November followed a Wall Street Journal report that CEO Bobby Kotick had known and not acted on harassment and abuse claims. Over 100 employees demonstrated outside Blizzard's headquarters [5] [6] and 1,700 workers signed a petition for Kotick's resignation. [7]

During the same period, the ABK Workers Alliance took several public actions. The group listed four demands: ending forced arbitration, more inclusive hiring protocol, increased compensation policy transparency, and an audit of the company's internal policies by a neutral third party. [8] The Alliance objected to Kotick's choice of legal counsel to audit the company's workplace [9] and in September, filed a unfair labor practice suit with the National Labor Relations Board for what the group described as intimidation and coersion to prevent their discussion of wage disparity and forced arbitration policy. [10] As part of a series of changes announced in response to the sexual harassment lawsuit, the company agreed to waive forced arbitration in cases about sexual harassment and discrimination. [11] Their demand met, the alliance celebrated. [12] In the time after the Wall Street Journal report on the CEO, one of the Alliance's main organizers, senior test analyst Jessica Gonzalez, left the company for personal reasons. [13]

In early December 2021, a subsidiary of Activision Blizzard based in Wisconsin that supports the Call of Duty series, Raven Software, fired 12 quality assurance workers—about a third of the team. The employees had just completed a five-week, end-of-year "crunch" overtime period and the team had been promised pay restructuring for higher salaries. The team and other workers walked out in response. Later in the week, a group, as the ABK Workers Alliance, formally announced that the multi-day walkout had become an open-ended strike action, and they were both raising funds for a strike fund and beginning a union drive. Ultimately, 20 quality assurance workers and 60 other staff participated in the strike, from Raven's 300 total. Since the group was not unionized, the strike did not have union protections. Forgoing salaries during the work stoppage, the group's strike fund sought to offset the workers' lost wages. [7] [2] [4] [14] The fund surpassed $350,000 by early January 2022. [15] The Communication Workers of America aided the organizing workers, who began signing union cards. [7]

The quality assurance workers announced their intent to unionize with the Communication Workers of America's CODE-CWA campaign as the Game Workers Alliance in late January 2022. They offered to end the strike, contingent upon the company recognizing the union. The Alliance wants more realistic development timelines, less crunch time, more transparency from management, more career development opportunities, and more empowerment of underrepresented voices. [2] [4] [14] Activision Blizzard denied their request to voluntarily recognize the union. [16]

During the ABK Workers Alliance's organizing efforts, Microsoft announced that it would be acquiring the company for US$70 billion. The organized workers said that their goals of workplace improvements and securing employee rights remained unchanged. [2]

As Activision Blizzard sought to settle its sexual harassment lawsuit with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the CWA objected on behalf of an employee affected by harassment and retaliation, seeking a fairness hearing. [17]

In May 2022, the Game Workers Alliance announced that they had voted to unionize, having reached a count of 19 – 2 in favor. As a result, the National Labor Relations Board officially recognized the Game Workers Alliance as a union. [18] [19]

Following the Raven QA team's successful unionization, the 20-member QA team of Blizzard Albany (formerly known as Vicarious Visions) announced a unionization drive in July 2022 as GWA Albany. [20] The vote passed (14–0), forming the second union at an Activizion Blizzard subsidiary. [21]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Raven Software</span> American video game development company

Raven Software Corporation is an American video game developer based in Wisconsin and founded in 1990. In 1997, Raven made an exclusive publishing deal with Activision and was subsequently acquired by them. After the acquisition, many of the studio's original developers, largely responsible for creating the Heretic and Hexen: Beyond Heretic games, left to form Human Head Studios.

A video game developer is a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large business with employee responsibilities split between individual disciplines, such as programmers, designers, artists, etc. Most game development companies have video game publisher financial and usually marketing support. Self-funded developers are known as independent or indie developers and usually make indie games.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Activision</span> American video game publisher

Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard, and consists of several subsidiary studios. Activision is one of the largest third-party video game publishers in the world and was the top United States publisher in 2016.

Blizzard Albany is an American video game developer based in Albany, New York. The studio was acquired by Activision in January 2005. After releasing its last game as part of that company, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2, Vicarious Visions became part of Activision's sister company Blizzard Entertainment in January 2021 and was merged into it in April 2022, thereby being renamed Blizzard Albany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Activision Blizzard</span> American video game holding company

Activision Blizzard, Inc. is an American video game holding company based in Santa Monica, California. It was founded in July 2008 through the merger of Activision, Inc. and Vivendi Games. It is traded on the Nasdaq stock exchange under the ticker symbol ATVI, and since 2015 has been a member of the S&P 500 Index. Activision Blizzard currently includes five business units: Activision Publishing, Blizzard Entertainment, King, Major League Gaming, and Activision Blizzard Studios.

The 2018 Google walkouts occurred on November 1, 2018 at approximately 11 am. The walkout had a large number of participants. The employees demanded five concrete changes from the company: an end to forced arbitration; a commitment to end pay inequality; a transparent sexual harassment report; an inclusive process for reporting sexual misconduct; and elevate the Chief of Diversity to answer directly to the CEO and create an Employee Representative. A majority of the known organizers have left the company since the walkout and many continue to voice their concerns. Google agreed to end forced arbitration and create a private report of sexual assault, but has not provided any further details about the other demands.

Tensions between the multinational technology company Google and its workers escalated in 2018 and 2019 as staff protested company decisions on a censored search engine for China, a military drone artificial intelligence, and internal sexual harassment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emma Kinema</span> American labor organizer

Emma Kinema is an American labor organizer and the senior campaign lead of CODE-CWA, the Communication Workers of America's Campaign to Organize Digital Employees. In the late 2010s, while working as a quality assurance tester, Kinema volunteered as a games industry organizer and co-founder of Game Workers Unite. She was hired by the CWA union in 2020 to lead their initiative to organize video game and tech workers, the first American initiative of its kind in those sectors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Game Workers Unite</span> Labor rights group for the video game industry

Game Workers Unite is a worker-run, labor rights group seeking to organize the video game industry. Founded during events surrounding the March 2018 Game Developers Conference, the flat organization has grown to over a thousand members across more than 20 international chapters. Its goal is a single union for all games workers, including artists, designers, producers, and programmers. Game Workers Unite has supported actions including Riot Games's 2019 walkout over sex discrimination and social media campaigns against CEOs who executed layoffs. The British chapter of Game Workers Unite is legally recognized as a union within the Independent Workers' Union of Great Britain and is working to end crunch overtime practices, improve diversity and inclusion, support targeted workers, and ensure steady and fair wages. Game Workers Unite co-founder Emma Kinema was hired by the Communications Workers of America to organize workers in the high tech and video game industries in early 2020, the first American initiative of its kind in those sectors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chris Smalls</span> American labor organizer (b. 1988/89)

Christian Smalls is an American labor organizer known for his role in leading Amazon worker organization in Staten Island, a borough in New York City. He is the president and founder of the Amazon Labor Union (ALU) since 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amazon worker organization</span> Collective worker action at the American e-commerce company

Some warehouse workers of Amazon, the largest American e-commerce retailer with 750,000 employees, have organized for workplace improvements in light of the company's scrutinized labor practices and stance against unions. Worker actions have included work stoppages and have won concessions including increased pay, safety precautions, and time off. There are unionized Amazon workers in both the United States and Europe.

A tech union is a trade union for tech workers typically employed in high tech or information and communications technology sectors. Due to the evolving nature of technology and work, different government agencies have conflicting definitions for who is a tech worker. Most definitions include computer scientists, people working in IT, telecommunications, media and video gaming. Broader definitions include all workers required for a tech company to operate, including on-site service staff, contractors, and platform economy workers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CODE-CWA</span> Initiative to unionize tech and video game workers

The Campaign to Organize Digital Employees or CODE-CWA is a project launched by the Communications Workers of America to unionize tech and video game workers in January 2020. It sprung out of conversations with Game Workers Unite (GWU) and employed at least two full time staff, including GWU co-founder Emma Kinema and veteran SEIU organizer Wes McEnany. In 2022, Jessica Gonzalez joined, a former Activision Blizzard QA tester.

The 2021–2022 Columbia University strike was a labor strike involving graduate student workers at Columbia University in New York City. The strike began on March 15, 2021, and ended on May 13, 2021. However, additional strike action commenced on November 3 and lasted until January 7, 2022, when a tentative agreement with the university was reached. The strike was organized by the Graduate Workers of Columbia–United Auto Workers Local 2110 (SWC–UAW), a labor union representing student workers at the university. The goals of the strike were an increase in wages, increased healthcare and childcare coverage, and third-party arbitration in cases of discrimination and sexual harassment.

<i>California Department of Fair Employment and Housing v. Activision Blizzard</i> Ongoing anti-discrimination lawsuit

California Department of Fair Employment and Housing v. Activision Blizzard is a current lawsuit filed by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH), now the Civil Rights Department (CRD) against video game developer Activision Blizzard in July 2021. The lawsuit asserts that management of Activision Blizzard allowed and at times encouraged sexual misconduct towards female employees, that the company maintained a "frat boy" culture, and that the company's hiring and employment practices were discriminatory against women.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Apple and unions</span> Apple Inc. related worker organizations and unions

Apple Inc. workers around the globe have been involved in organizing since the 1990s. Apple worker organizations have been made up of retail, corporate, and outsourced workers. Employees have joined trade unions and formed works councils in Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, United Kingdom and the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cher Scarlett</span> American software engineer, writer, labor activist, and corporate whistleblower

Cher Scarlett is an American workers' rights activist, software engineer, and writer. She has organized staff at Apple, Activision Blizzard, and Starbucks.

On January 18, 2022, Microsoft announced its intent to acquire Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion in cash. Under the terms of the agreement, Microsoft would own Activision, Blizzard Entertainment, and King under the Microsoft Gaming division as a sibling to Xbox Game Studios.

Currently Microsoft workers in the United States do not have a current labor union. This is expected to change with the acquisition of Activision Blizzard, which already recognizes a union in one of its subsidiaries. Microsoft USA workers have been active in opposing military/law-enforcement contracts with their employer.

Jessica Gonzalez is an American labor organizer working with CODE-CWA, the Communication Workers of America's Campaign to Organize Digital Employees. She is known for her work organizing in the video game industry and founding A Better ABK, the worker advocacy group at Activision Blizzard, and co-founding ABK Workers Alliance, a solidarity union, and Game Workers Alliance, the Raven Software union.

References

  1. ↑ Browning, Kellen; Isaac, Mike (July 29, 2021). "Activision, Facing Internal Turmoil, Grapples With #MeToo Reckoning". The New York Times . ISSN   0362-4331. Archived from the original on July 30, 2021. Retrieved January 24, 2022.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Blake, Vikki (January 18, 2022). "Raven Software ends QA strike action in light of unionisation". Eurogamer . Archived from the original on January 24, 2022. Retrieved January 23, 2022.
  3. ↑ Parrish, Ash (October 28, 2021). "Activision Blizzard ends forced arbitration as CEO takes a massive pay cut". The Verge . Archived from the original on January 18, 2022. Retrieved January 24, 2022.
  4. 1 2 3 Orland, Kyle (January 21, 2022). "Members of Activision's Raven Software QA team form a union". Ars Technica . Archived from the original on January 22, 2022. Retrieved January 23, 2022.
  5. ↑ Orland, Kyle (July 27, 2021). "Activision Blizzard 'Walkout for Equality' to protest management inaction". Ars Technica . Archived from the original on October 21, 2021. Retrieved January 23, 2022.
  6. ↑ Orland, Kyle (November 16, 2021). "After bombshell report, Activision employees walk out, demand CEO resign". Ars Technica . Archived from the original on January 19, 2022. Retrieved January 24, 2022.
  7. 1 2 3 Carpenter, Nicole (December 9, 2021). "Activision Blizzard workers group announces strike fund, begins unionization effort". Polygon . Archived from the original on January 18, 2022. Retrieved January 24, 2022.
  8. ↑ Bailey, Dustin (August 3, 2021). "The ABK Workers Alliance demands change at Activision Blizzard". PCGamesN . Archived from the original on January 6, 2022. Retrieved January 24, 2022.
  9. ↑ Kim, Matt (August 3, 2021). "Activision Blizzard Employees Form Coalition, Reject CEO's Choice of Law Firm". IGN . Archived from the original on August 3, 2021. Retrieved January 24, 2022.
  10. ↑ Parrish, Ash (September 14, 2021). "Activision Blizzard sued again, this time for labor violations". The Verge . Archived from the original on November 11, 2021. Retrieved January 24, 2022.
  11. ↑ Parrish, Ash (October 28, 2021). "Activision Blizzard ends forced arbitration as CEO takes a massive pay cut". The Verge . Archived from the original on January 18, 2022. Retrieved January 24, 2022.
  12. ↑ Bailey, Dustin (October 28, 2021). "ABK Workers Alliance calls Activision Blizzard changes 'a huge win'". PCGamesN. Archived from the original on January 6, 2022. Retrieved January 24, 2022.
  13. ↑ Farokhmanesh, Megan (November 30, 2021). "Activision Blizzard walkout organizer resigns". Axios . Archived from the original on December 2, 2021. Retrieved January 24, 2022.
  14. 1 2 Orland, Kyle (December 9, 2021). "Activision Blizzard workers announce open-ended strike and union drive". Ars Technica . Archived from the original on January 18, 2022. Retrieved January 24, 2022.
  15. ↑ Moore, Jared (January 6, 2022). "Activision Blizzard Strike Fund Passes $350,000 as Management Finally Replies". IGN . Archived from the original on January 14, 2022. Retrieved January 23, 2022.
  16. ↑ Kullgren, Ian (January 26, 2022). "Activision Workers Ask Labor Board for Union Election". Bloomberg Law. Archived from the original on January 27, 2022. Retrieved January 27, 2022.
  17. ↑ Allsup, Maeve (February 11, 2022). "Activision Bias, Harassment Settlement Challenged by Union". Bloomberg Law. Archived from the original on February 16, 2022. Retrieved February 16, 2022.
  18. ↑ Wood, Austin (May 23, 2022). "Activision Blizzard employees form first major NA games union, hope to inspire "growing movement of workers"". GamesRadar+. Archived from the original on June 14, 2022. Retrieved June 14, 2022.
  19. ↑ Paul, Kari (May 23, 2022). "Activision Blizzard's Raven Software workers vote to form industry's first union". The Guardian. Archived from the original on June 14, 2022. Retrieved June 14, 2022.
  20. ↑ "Blizzard QA workers in Albany are organizing Activision's second union". July 19, 2022. Archived from the original on August 1, 2022. Retrieved August 1, 2022.
  21. ↑ Carpenter, Nicole (December 2, 2022). "Blizzard Albany becomes second unionized studio at Activision Blizzard". Polygon . Archived from the original on January 26, 2023. Retrieved February 11, 2023.

Further reading

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.