At the end of January, activist employees in Raven Software’s quality assurance department submitted their union’s formation to Activision Blizzard for approval — backed by strong U.S. communications workers. A program can demonstrate the integrity of the company and facilitate the creation of this QA employee representative body. Unfortunately for the employees involved in the process, Activision Blizzard didn’t want to recognize their union, arguing that all 350 of the studio’s employees should be able to have a say on the issue, not just members of the QA department.
To assert its rights, the latter turned to the National Labor Relations Board, which handles such lawsuits, and ultimately rejected Activision Blizzard’s objections. So a new vote was held yesterday: 19 of the 22 employees in the department voted for unionization, while only 3 were against. Activision Blizzard can still compete for the result until May 31, after which it will be officially approved. Reached by colleagues at GameInformer, Activision Blizzard stated: ” We respect and believe that all employees have the right to decide whether to support or vote for a union. We believe that important decisions affecting the entire Raven Software studio (about 350 people) should not be made by 19 Raven employees. ‘, casting doubt on his intentions.
For now, the employees in question have just won the showdown anyway and entered the history of the American video game industry because their union was the first to see the light of day in such a company that matters across the Atlantic.
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