With Activision Blizzard employees more organized than ever in the course of the company several sexual harassment lawsuits and Layoffs in quality assurance, a senior executive apparently thought the time had come to send a panicked email warning workers of the vague “consequences” of union formation.
The author of the email, Brian Bulatao, is a buddy of Donald Trump, whom Activision brought in Blizzard to act as chief executive officer officer earlier this year. During his time in politics, Bulatao is said to have acted as the “attack dog” of former Foreign Secretary Mike Pompeo “Bullying” former Inspector General Steve Linick when Linick investigated the Trump administration’s 2019 sales of $ 8 billion in arms to Saudi Arabia.
Here’s what Bulatao had to say to Activision Blizzard employees in a company-wide email this morning (italics): Courtesy organizer and lead test analyst Jessica Gonzalez:
All,
At Activision Blizzard, we’re working hard to create a more inclusive, supportive, and rewarding environment, and we’re making progress thanks to your contributions.
In the past few months, we announced that at Activision Publishing Studios we were converting nearly 500 temporary workers to full-time employees, increasing wages for the majority of the temporary workers, and adding paid time off. We have implemented a policy of zero tolerance for harassment and waived the necessary arbitration of complaints relating to sexual harassment and discrimination. We’re made significant commitments to increasing gender diversity and we are allocating $ 250 million to improve opportunities for diverse talent across the industry. We have more work to do, and we believe direct dialogue between management and employees is essential to the success of Activision Blizzard.
As you may have seen yesterday, there was a notice supported by the Communications Workers of America (CWA) asking employees to sign and submit union authorization cards. I want to make this clear: The Activision Blizzard leadership supports your right to under the [sic] National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) to choose whether or not to join a union.
If you are making this decision for your future, we only ask that you take the time to consider the consequences of your signature on the binding legal document presented to you by CWA. As soon as you sign this document, you have given CWA the exclusive right to “represent” [you] for the purpose of collective bargaining on all terms and conditions of employment. ”This means that your ability to negotiate all of your own terms and conditions of employment will be passed to CWA as stated in the document.
The best way to achieve our workplace culture goals is through an active, transparent dialogue between managers and employees, to which we can react quickly. This is a better way than simply signing an electronic form offered by CWA or waiting for the outcome of a legally mandated and regulated negotiation process at some point in the future.
Of course, if we fail to meet the workplace goals we have set – if we fail to meet our commitments – you still have the right to stand up for and vote for CWA. But we are confident that we will make the progress we promised ourselves earlier and create with you a workplace we can all be proud of.
As always, we are happy to be contacted with concerns or ideas to bring about improvements, and there are several internal channels for direct and anonymous dialogue.
Brian
Bulatao’s email smells like desperation, another attempt by Activision Blizzard management, who previously hired an anti-union law firmto contain the company’s ailing workforce before employees realize their power. The message of the memo specifically refers to decades of rhetoric spun by predatory bosses who fear collective action. The only thing missing is a reference to Activision Blizzard as a family, although it is clear that management prefers to resolve the organization’s numerous problems internally, without public scrutiny, when their decisions inevitably harm workers and benefit executives.
Since yesterday the advocacy group ABK Workers Alliance raised over $ 235,000 in strike fund for employees of the Activision Blizzard subsidiary Raven Software, who this morning in the fifth their strike as answer to recent layoffs in the area of quality assurance. While Activision Blizzard has reportedly been unionizing for months, a worker said Kotaku that the situation at Raven Software given a “spark” to move forward openly with organizational efforts.
“There is still a long way to go”, organizers and World of Warcraft Senior UI Engineer Valentine Powell recently declared on Twitter, “But we want to support our employees across the board [Activision Blizzard King] To finally have a real say in the management of our company, because in the last few months and years we have seen that our management continues to ignore the needs of their employees. Thousands of ABK employees have been putting their careers and safety at risk for years to make our companies better and safer workplaces. We tried as many options as possible before we unionized. “
Continue reading: Within the revolt that led to the historic union push by Activision Blizzard workers
With workers in the United States openly expressing their dissatisfaction with the country’s largely hideous labor practices – thanks in part to the Covid-19 pandemic which exacerbated existing problems – it was only a matter of time before unionization took hold in the video game industry grasped. And now that the momentum is building up, it’s hard to imagine that it will end anytime soon, whether the bosses like it or not.
Correction 10/12/2021 7:15 p.m. ET: An earlier version of this article is missingthe job title of Bulatao.
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