Since a gaggle of 34 high quality assurance testers at Raven Software voted to unionize earlier this month, the studio’s mother or father firm, Activision Blizzard, has been making strikes that may undermine that help and make it tougher for employees to arrange. This morning, Activision VP of QA Chris Arends despatched the clearest message but about the place executives stand on the unionization effort, and (spoiler) it is firmly towards.
In an inner, locked Slack channel on Monday morning, Arends requested himself six questions concerning the potential union and offered solutions for workers from Activision’s standpoint, as shared on Twitter by union organizer Jessica Gonzalez. Employees had been unable to reply to the message. Each reply diminished the advantages of unionization, however the fourth immediate supplied probably the most specific takedown of the group course of. It reads as follows:
We heard that the union will defend workers and supply workers with job safety?
Job safety right here at ABK rests with our potential to supply epic leisure for our followers. A union would not do something to assist us produce world-class video games, and the bargaining course of just isn’t usually fast, usually reduces flexibility, and may be adversarial and result in adverse publicity. All of this might harm our potential to proceed creating nice video games.
The fifth reply argued that union-driven bargaining takes too lengthy to be efficient, stating the plain within the course of: “A unionized firm can not act shortly by itself if the union doesn’t agree with its place.” The last reply reminded workers that they do not need to vote in favor of the union when an election takes place.
On Twitter, Gonzalez referred to as the submit “unhappy.”
This is the most recent transfer from Activision designed to halt momentum on the unionization course of at Raven. Just three days after workers introduced they’d gathered a supermajority of signatures required to unionize beneath the title Game Workers Alliance, Raven head Brian Raffel revealed a reorganization plan that breaks up the studio’s QA division, shifting workers to disparate groups.
Communications Workers of America, which is backing GWA, mentioned on Twitter that the shuffle was “nothing greater than a tactic to thwart Raven QA employees who’re exercising their proper to arrange.”
Activision additionally did not voluntarily acknowledge GWA, which implies they will have to hunt a vote via the NLRB, a course of that may take years. Additionally, Activision is pushing for the vote to incorporate all workers at Raven, somewhat than solely QA employees, decreasing the potential for achievement.
Arends’ Slack message — making an attempt to persuade workers that unions will make their works lives slower and crappier — falls in step with Activision’s earlier ways.
Activision Blizzard is presently the topic of intense scrutiny from a number of angles. GWA would be the first union at a AAA recreation growth studio in North America, doubtlessly setting the stage for extra group throughout the trade. Plus, Activision Blizzard is the topic of a lawsuit and a number of investigations into experiences of systemic gender discrimination and sexual harassment on the studio, with incidents allegedly relationship again a long time.
And lastly, Microsoft is within the course of of shopping for Activision Blizzard, Raven Software and all, in a deal price $69 billion. It’ll be the biggest acquisition in online game historical past and it marks the trade’s period of consolidation. One day after information of the acquisition went reside, Activision advised the SEC that there have been no unionization efforts underway at its studios, although within the months earlier than, executives advised Raven workers to “think about the results” of signing union playing cards.
