Blizzard Says Studio Employees Are Dropping Union Offer (Update)
Proletariat staff say the PDG held anti-union meetings.
An Activision Blizzard studio will not form a union, at least not in the near future. The Communication Workers of America (CWA) has said it is withdrawing its petition for a union vote at the Blizzard Proletariat support studio, which is currently working on World of Warcraft: Dragonflight. As Kotaku notes, a CWA spokesperson claims that Proletariat leader Seth Sivak viewed employee unionization as a "personal attack" and held meetings that allegedly "demoralized and weakened" the team enough to prevent a fair election.< /p>
The pro-union group, the Alliance of Proletarian Workers, said in December it had majority support. Activision Blizzard refused to voluntarily recognize the union, however, forcing an election through the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). It's unclear exactly how much support the vote has at the moment, but proletarian engineer Dustin Yost says in a statement that the union-busting meetings "took their toll".
We have asked Activision Blizzard and the CWA for comment. There is no immediate indication that the CWA plans to resubmit the petition or file a complaint with the NLRB regarding the alleged union busting tactics. Yost says he still thinks a union is the "best way" to get industry representation.
Staff at Activision Blizzard and Raven Software's Albany studio successfully unionized last year despite accusations of the publisher's union busting tactics. However, these campaigns were limited to QA testers. Proletariat Workers Alliance hoped to unite the entire studio except for management, which was considerably more complex. According to a source at Axios, some teammates felt the push to unionize was too fast and didn't give them time to understand the consequences.
This does not rule out a union in the Proletariat or other Activision Blizzard teams. That said, it comes as workers in the tech space seek to unionize, including at gaming giants like Microsoft's ZeniMax. Developers and testers do not feel they have fair working conditions and are increasingly willing to speak out on the subject.
Update 1/24 4:44 PM ET: The CWA reiterated its position in a statement to Engadget. Blizzard said it "appreciated" the decision to withdraw the petition and said it "appreciated" the ability for employees to vote.
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Proletariat staff say the PDG held anti-union meetings.
An Activision Blizzard studio will not form a union, at least not in the near future. The Communication Workers of America (CWA) has said it is withdrawing its petition for a union vote at the Blizzard Proletariat support studio, which is currently working on World of Warcraft: Dragonflight. As Kotaku notes, a CWA spokesperson claims that Proletariat leader Seth Sivak viewed employee unionization as a "personal attack" and held meetings that allegedly "demoralized and weakened" the team enough to prevent a fair election.< /p>
The pro-union group, the Alliance of Proletarian Workers, said in December it had majority support. Activision Blizzard refused to voluntarily recognize the union, however, forcing an election through the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). It's unclear exactly how much support the vote has at the moment, but proletarian engineer Dustin Yost says in a statement that the union-busting meetings "took their toll".
We have asked Activision Blizzard and the CWA for comment. There is no immediate indication that the CWA plans to resubmit the petition or file a complaint with the NLRB regarding the alleged union busting tactics. Yost says he still thinks a union is the "best way" to get industry representation.
Staff at Activision Blizzard and Raven Software's Albany studio successfully unionized last year despite accusations of the publisher's union busting tactics. However, these campaigns were limited to QA testers. Proletariat Workers Alliance hoped to unite the entire studio except for management, which was considerably more complex. According to a source at Axios, some teammates felt the push to unionize was too fast and didn't give them time to understand the consequences.
This does not rule out a union in the Proletariat or other Activision Blizzard teams. That said, it comes as workers in the tech space seek to unionize, including at gaming giants like Microsoft's ZeniMax. Developers and testers do not feel they have fair working conditions and are increasingly willing to speak out on the subject.
Update 1/24 4:44 PM ET: The CWA reiterated its position in a statement to Engadget. Blizzard said it "appreciated" the decision to withdraw the petition and said it "appreciated" the ability for employees to vote.
All products recommended by Engadget are selected by our editorial team, independent of our parent company. Some of our stories include affiliate links. If you purchase something through one of these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. All prices correct at time of publication.
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