Activision Blizzard chooses not to voluntarily recognize Call of Duty QA union

pcgamer.com:

On January 21st, the QA testers at Call of Duty developer Raven Software announced they had formed a union and were seeking voluntary recognition from Raven parent company Activision Blizzard. «With a super-majority of Raven Quality Assurance invested in our organizing efforts, we have found it to be in our own best interests to push forward with unionization. It has become evident that equity will never be achieved without collective bargaining power,» the workers wrote in an open letter to Activision Blizzard leadership.

The newly formed Game Workers Alliance, composed of 34 quality assurance workers, asked for recognition to form a union with the Communication Workers of America (CWA) by the end of the work day on Tuesday, January 25th. Activision has now missed that deadline, meaning the union is going to file for an election with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), reports The Washington Post.

In a statement to PC Gamer on Tuesday, an Activision Blizzard spokesperson confirmed that Activision chose not to voluntarily recognize the Game Workers Alliance: «At Activision Blizzard, we deeply respect the rights of all employees to make their own decisions about whether or not to join a union. We carefully reviewed and considered the CWA initial request last week and tried to find a mutually acceptable solution with the CWA that would have led to an expedited election process. Unfortunately, the parties could not reach an agreement.»

The statement continues that if the Game Workers Alliance does file for an election with the NLRB, Activision Blizzard «will respond formally to that petition promptly,» and that «the most important thing to the company is that each eligible employee has the opportunity to have their