Blizzard Tester’s Union Vote May Go On, NLRB Rules

Already in July A group of 21 quality assurance staff at Activision’s Albany studio – formerly known as Vicarious Visions – announced their intention to unionise. Today the National Labor Relations Board confirmed that their vote can go ahead.

The verdict came about because –and interrupt me if you’ve heard this before– Publisher Activision Blizzard initially opposed the move, saying a larger group of 88 developers should be included in the vote, a textbook piece of union-busting has also been attempted at other Activision studios going through the process of unionizing.

In this case it didn’t work; Today’s NLRB ruling paves the way for workers to vote on forming a union, contradicting (in a detailed breakdown explaining each department at the studio how their jobs differ and how underpaid testers are) the claim made by Activision that “we believe every employee at Albany working on Diablo should have a direct say in this decision.”

The judgment comes to the following conclusion:

Based on the above, I conclude that the employees in the requested entity share a community of interest. I also looked at the similarities that exist among the developers and compared them to the testers. Developers are organized into separate departments, but ultimately report to the head of the Diablo franchise. Developers have diverse skills, training, and roles, but use those skills in a complementary manner in a production process that involves a significant degree of contact and a high degree of functional integration. Compensation varies, but many terms and conditions of employment overlap among developers.

Comparing the developer vs. tester community of interests, I find that the different interests of the testers outweigh the similarities with the developers. As mentioned, the testers participate in the same game development process, which includes significant contact and functional integration. However, testers are organized separately in their own department and their supervisory hierarchy is entirely separate from the Diablo franchise. Testers also have specific skills and responsibilities that are different from developers. After all, testers are paid significantly less than developers. Additionally, the evidence for sharing between testers and developers is extremely limited. For these reasons, I believe common interests between the testers and developers do not outweigh the separate interests that make the requested entity a viable entity.

The verdict immediately clears the way for an election that will begin soon; Ballot papers will be mailed out on October 27th and votes will be counted on November 18th.

A current employee of the studio, but not one of the testers involved in the vote, told the Washington Post “It’s about time. Our QA testers are some of the most talented and capable people working in our company, and they are grossly undervalued by companies. I think all game workers need a union, but quality assurance is particularly badly needed.”

Updated 10:00 p.m. ET: Lulu Cheng Meservey, Activision Blizzard’s executive vice president, corporate affairs and chief communications officer, responded to the internal communications finding: Write:

Hey everyone, quick pointers to something important. It’s long, but I want to be thorough So thank you for putting up with me. This afternoon the NLRB (National Labor Relations Board) ruled that -20 QA (Quality Assurance) testers working on Diablo in Albany are eligible to form a union and if the union wins the vote, into the bargaining unit is recorded.

Where the company stands by: Fully respects the NLRB process and fully supports the right of workers to choose how they want to be represented. Also believes that people working closely together should be able to make such decisions together – meaning we disagree that a handful of employees should decide the future of all Albany for everyone else –based Diablo team. We think that a direct dialogue between company and employees is the most productive way.

Examples: Through direct dialogue, we have converted already temporary QA staff to full-time, increased pay, increased benefits, opened up access to the loyalty program and offered more opportunities for career advancement (which would also result in higher pay).

We believe that collective bargaining is comparatively slow – once an agreement is reached, it takes over a year on average, according to a Bloomberg analysis. During lengthy contract negotiations, companies have not granted pay/bonus/benefit increases without specific agreement with the union, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics has reported that non-union workers generally receive higher pay increases than unionized groups. This aligns with what we saw at Raven where there have only been 3 bargaining sessions since the union was registered almost 6 months ago, due in part to the union canceling pre-scheduled bargaining sessions for a month.

I’m sharing all of this because a streamlined process is one reason the company prefers direct conversations – but ultimately it’s up to the employees, and everyone should be able to vote for their own preference in a fair election.

What happens next with it is that the ballots will be mailed to eligible staffers in Albany on October 27, must be returned by November 17, and will be counted by the NLRB on November 18.

More will follow as the process continues, but wanted to share them as soon as possible. Thanks for reading everyone.