Labor rights
Activision will not recognize Raven's unionization; vote to be taken at NLRB
The corporation does not recognize the workers' organized labor union. The company would rather relocate employees to different departments.
Activision Blizzard will not voluntarily acknowledge the unionization of Raven Software workers. Thus, the decision will be taken in a vote at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in the near future. According to the workers themselves, as reported by journalist Stephen Totilo, there is a high probability that the vote will be in favor of the unionization process, which seeks to preserve employees' job security.
Just an hour after the news broke early Wednesday morning, Polygon's Nicole Carpenter reported that Raven Software's studio leader, Brian Raffel, has written an email to workers informing of Activision Blizzard's willingness to relocate QA workers who want to unionize to other departments, from design to art to engineering. Presumably, Activision prefers such a move to avoid layoffs and avoid unionization at the same time.
Raven Software stopped the strike this Monday
Workers at Raven Software (Call of Duty: Warzone) confirmed on Monday that their strike, which began last December in order to unionize, was halted. The Activision Blizzard-owned team was involved in numerous unjustified layoffs over the past year, staff cuts, and an undesirable work environment, according to them. They are now waiting for the giant led by Bobby Kotick to give the green light to the creation of this union.
The main reason for the closure of this indefinite strike at Raven Software, which has lasted two months, was the creation of the Game Workers Alliance union last Friday. GWA, hand in hand with Communication Workers of America - a participant in the Activision Blizzard scandal labor claims - are seeking to have the formation of that union recognized by its parent company. And that is where we are now: the recognition of the unionization process. This is how they explained it on Twitter:
“Pending the recognition of our union, the Raven QA strike has ended. Unused strike funds are being stored for future organizing/strike efforts. We'll post or retweet any GWU updates here. Appreciate all the community support throughout the strike!”, reads its message.
Now it is the turn of Activision Blizzard, which was supposed to give an answer to Raven Software before January 25, the date initially set as the deadline, although as we can see the decision will take longer than expected due to the vote. The purchase of the corporation by Microsoft for 68.7 billion dollars has not only been a great surprise in terms of information, but also a halo of hope for many of the company's dissatisfied employees, given that at the closing of the transaction in the fiscal year 2023 changes are promised at the top and, according to journalistic sources, also the departure of Bobby Kotick, the current CEO and one of the main targets.
What's going on at Raven Software: a recap of the events
Raven Software is the studio responsible for the development of such successful works as Call of Duty: Warzone; as well as the main support for other major releases led by other Activision Blizzard studios. After the layoff of 12 part-time workers, staff cuts and the plan to lay off as many employees in the quality assurance (QA) department, the studio called a strike demanding improvements that had been promised many months ago. It was also at that time that a donation fund was created and referred to in the message posted on Twitter.
We will soon know the end of a situation that may set a historical precedent for an American video game studio.
Sources | ABK; GamesIndustry; Stephen Totilo; Nicole Carpenter