The Raven Software staff responsible for quality assurance for Call of Duty: Warzone formed a union called the Game Workers Alliance, which is part of the Communications Workers of America (CWA).
Activision Blizzard employees have been threatening to unionize since the strike seven weeks ago, and among the Raven QA testers, 34 workers decided to unionize.
“Today, I’m proud to join the vast majority of my colleagues in establishing our union, the Gaming Workers Alliance (GWA),” Raven software tester Becka Aigner said in a press release. “In the video game industry, and Raven QA in particular, people are passionate about their work and the content they are creating. We want to make sure that the passion of these employees is accurately reflected in our workplace and in the content we produce. Our union It’s the leadership’s way of hearing our collective voice.”
With the help of CWA, the program is focused on providing a “workplace where all workers can thrive and setting new standards for workers moving forward across the industry”. The Game Workers Coalition also wants to make sure employees don’t get caught in a “crisis”, and they want leadership to have “open and frequent communication about any decisions that affect employees’ work lives” to ensure QA testers are “appropriately compensated, and professionally” development opportunities” as it is “an important role in the development process”. The group also wants to make all walks of life heard at the top by “giving underrepresented voices”.
“We ask the leadership of Raven Software and Activision to voluntarily recognize our union and respect our right to organize without retaliation or interference,” GWA says“Our goal is to work with leadership to create a healthy and prosperous work environment for all, to develop successful and sustainable products, and to support our players in having fun.”
Microsoft earlier this week announced plans to buy Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion, one of the largest acquisitions ever, especially in the gaming industry.
