Activision Blizzard accused of ‘union-busting’ as Raven QA union hearing continues

polygon.com:

Activision Blizzard and Raven Software QA workers are looking to define employees eligible for Game Workers Alliance, the union group formed in January with the assistance of Communication Workers of America (CWA). The National Labor Review Board hearing began Wednesday and continued into Thursday. Union representatives have raised concerns about whether Activision Blizzard’s various responses to employees’ unionization efforts constitute union-busting.

The hearing was forced in late January after Activision Blizzard denied Game Workers Alliance’s request for voluntary recognition of the union. The purpose of the hearing is to define which employees can be included in the unit, as well as determine who can vote for or against the union. From the hearing, Activision Blizzard and Game Workers Alliance will also set a date for the vote.

One of the complicated issues outlined during the hearing concerns Activision Blizzard’s reorganization of its QA staff following the announcement of Game Workers Alliance. That reorganization “embeds” the QA team into different teams across the company, like art, design, engineering, and audio, Activision Blizzard said in January. Though embedded QA is considered a positive adjustment for a video game studio, since its aim is to better include QA workers in the development process, the timing of Activision Blizzard’s reorganization raised questions among staff regarding whether their union was being intentionally split up. In January, CWA organizing director Tom Smith called the move “nothing more than a tactic to thwart Raven QA workers who are exercising their right to organize.”

The NLRB hearing will determine whether this reorganization reclassifies QA workers, therefore redefining the