The days go by much too similarly as far as the problems with harassment of all kinds within the publisher Activision-Blizzard, which is currently being acquired by Microsoft.
It is that Washington Post who tells us about the difficulties that Raven studio employees encountered to re-establish their union Games Workers Alliance after all the scandals related to a toxic corporate culture. In fact, last week 34 people in the quality control department set themselves a deadline of 6pm this Tuesday for a positive reply from the publisher, who didn’t deign to follow up. Despite their deafening silence, the workers held elections that resulted in an absolute majority. Good news, as this would strip them of any acceptance from their parent company, allowing their group to be legally recognized by the authorities.
However, after the deadline, Activision-Blizzard issued a press release with an email from studio head Brian Raffel to his team:
After carefully reviewing the CWA’s request to the company, we quickly worked to find a solution with the CWA to secure early elections. Unfortunately, the parties did not come to an agreement. We assume that the process will be continued with the submission of a petition to National Industrial Relations Council (NLRB) for an election of Raven Software employees who wish to run for office. If the conditions are met, the company will promptly and formally respond to this petition. The most important thing for the company is that every authorized employee has the opportunity to make his or her voice heard and that their individual voice is counted. We also believe that all employees have a say in this decision.
This show of good faith is at odds with an action taken on Monday. In fact, after two meetings, 23 testers formed in December saw their roles change within the studio. Even more disturbingly, Brian Raffel and John Obligato (Head of Human Resources at Activision-Blizzard) refrained from mentioning the formation of the union during these recent interviews.
This practice doesn’t seem to surprise Wilma Liebman, former president of the NLRB under Barack Obama, who points out that she has seen such actions often. According to some analysts and employees, this could be aimed at sabotaging the formation of the union by diluting its membership within the company.
That doesn’t seem to shake the resolve of Onah Rongstad, currently a QA tester at Raven Software:
As long as we keep testing, we are a unit by our function within the studio. Our solidarity will not be broken by any reorganization.
Given Activision-Blizzard’s reluctance, this may give us some clues as to the paradox pointed out by a 2021 poll conducted by Gallup. It showed that despite an increase in the popularity of unions among American workers (68% positive opinions), only a little over 10% belonged to them.
Let’s hope for the Raven Software teams that they achieve their goal and that we won’t have to share such unflattering stories for our favorite medium in the near future.
Article written by Danxter
