workers in Boston World of Warcraft Support studio Proletariat (aka Blizzard Boston) is withdrawing its petition to the National Labor Relations Board and will not vote on a union. They announced their petition in late December, but withdrew the application on Tuesday.
A representative for Communications Workers of America blamed management’s “confrontational tactics” for the withdrawn petition, claiming the company “held a series of meetings that demoralized and disempowered the group and made free and fair elections impossible.”
The Proletariat Workers Alliance wanted to secure the company’s current paid time off plan, as well as flexible remote options, healthcare benefits, and ensuring transparency and diversity.
If the petition is withdrawn, the workers of the proletariat will not vote on a union.
“We appreciate that the CWA has unilaterally decided to withdraw their petition in response to employee feedback,” Joe Christinat, vice president of media relations, said in a statement to Polygon. “As we have said before, we welcome the opportunity for each employee to securely express their preferences through a confidential vote. Our team at Proletariat achieves extraordinary things every day. They remain focused on working with their teams to make Proletariat a place where everyone can grow, thrive and be part of an amazing team and culture.”
Dustin Yost, a software engineer at Proletariat, said in a statement released by CWA that initially the majority of workers supported the union. The worker said that “meetings that presented the conversation as a personal betrayal” to management took a toll on that support. “Even though we are withdrawing our request for union elections today and really hope that management will prioritize the concerns that led us to organise, I still believe that a union is the best way for workers in our industry to ensure.” that our voices will be heard,” said Yost.
Other workers, some who described themselves as pro-worker, felt the process was rushed — announced when the company was on vacation, followed by confusing communications, said Kat Dolan, Proletariat’s user interface artist and user experience designer, versus igamesnews. Dolan disputed the characterization that management curtailed union efforts. She added that some workers felt “disillusioned” with the process and said things could have ended differently if they had been approached differently.
The Proletariat Workers Alliance was supposed to coordinate with the National Labor Relations Board – the same process that both Raven Software and Blizzard Albany’s QA unions went through. Activision Blizzard has challenged the choice at both studios, seeking to expand the proposed negotiation entity beyond QA testers.
Companies sometimes struggle to increase the size of a unit in order to dilute the efforts of union organizations and increase the likelihood of a union ballot failing. but an NLRB verdict in 2022 made it easier for organizers to unionize smaller groups within a company (known as micro-units), which puts an obligation on a company to provide overwhelming evidence that a group should be opened up.
CWA has filed multiple unfair labor complaints against Activision Blizzard over alleged anti-union tactics; Activision Blizzard officials have denied any wrongdoing.
Seth Sivak founded Proletariat in 2012 and the studio worked independently, working on games like spellbreak and stream legends until Activision Blizzard acquired the studio in 2022. Sivak is now vice president of development at Blizzard Entertainment and runs the Boston-based Proletariat studio that is now being worked on World of Warcraft. Allison Brown, a software developer in the test division, told Polygon in early January that union talks had started before the takeover, but around rumblings about working with the company.
“There was a fear that we might suddenly become part of a larger organization and lose some of the things that made the proletariat special,” Brown said.
She continued: “No matter how much faith we have in management […], things can change. I started in the industry 14 years ago, I’ve been fired more than once. I’ve watched the benefits change and worsen. There is no control over it. But when we bargain collectively, when we put these things in writing, there are mechanisms in place to ensure we have a voice.”
After the petition Proletariatführung became known published a blog in which it refused to recognize the union of the proletariat and forced the union to vote with the National Labor Relations Board. The leadership of the proletariat described the company as “worker-friendly” and indicated that some workers had concerns, so management wanted to hold an anonymous vote.
Activision Blizzard’s response to earlier union organizing efforts was at odds with Microsoft’s so-called labor neutrality agreement. The agreement signed with CWA means Microsoft will not interfere in the company’s organizing efforts — with either current Microsoft employees or potential employees joining Microsoft as part of its $68.7 billion deal to acquire Activision Blizzard (currently the subject of a Federal Trade Commission lawsuit).
That agreement was put to the test late last year when QA staff at ZeniMax Media, responsible for franchises like The Elder Scrolls, Doom and Fallout, announced their intention to unionize. Microsoft agreed to recognize the union after a quick vote outside of the NLRB; the company was able to avoid a lot of bureaucracy thanks to the neutrality agreement. ZeniMax QA staff voted through union authorization cards and an online portal where an overwhelming majority of workers pledged their support for the union.
Update (9 January): This story has been updated to include comment from Activision Blizzard.
Update (January 10th): On Monday leadership of the proletariat published a blog post in which it refused to recognize the union of the proletariat and forced the union to vote with the National Labor Relations Board. The leadership of the proletariat described the company as “worker-friendly”.
The Proletariat Workers Alliance denied this, saying that not recognizing the majority of signed union cards was anti-union. “Your actions this week are straight out of the anti-union playbook used by Activision and so many others,” the workers wrote in a statement. “Management held a town hall meeting last week that disappointed many of our workers. The meeting was inappropriate due to its anti-union influence.”
The workers continued: “We can decide for ourselves whether we want a union. We don’t need any help from management. We need – and deserve – respect and neutrality. We want to be fair to our team and work with management without arguments. We can help make the proletariat the best it can be by backing each other up.”
Update (January 24): Workers at Proletariat withdrew the union petition on January 24. This story has been updated to reflect this new information.
Update (January 24): Activision Blizzard responded to CWA’s withdrawn petition:
We appreciate that in response to staff feedback, the CWA has unilaterally decided to withdraw their petition. As previously mentioned, we welcome the opportunity for any employee to securely express their preferences through a confidential vote. Our team at Proletariat achieves extraordinary things every day. They remain focused on working with their teams to make Proletariat a place where everyone can grow, thrive and be part of an amazing team and culture.
Update (January 25): This story has been updated to include the comment of another worker of the proletariat.
