Activision Blizzard Won’t Voluntarily Recognize New Raven Software Union

gameinformer.com:

Thirty-four quality assurance employees formed a new union at Raven Software called the Game Workers Alliance Union. It became the first union at a publicly-traded video game publisher (and the first within Activision Blizzard). The union asked Activision Blizzard for voluntary recognition, but the publisher has revealed that it won’t do that. 

Raven asked Activision Blizzard for the recognition by January 25, and hours after the deadline, an Activision Blizzard spokesperson sent the following statement to Game Informer: 

As the statement above reveals, Activision Blizzard says it considered the Raven union requests and attempted to find a solution that was agreeable to both it and the union. Such a solution could not be found, as the publisher has opted not to recognize the Game Workers Alliance Union voluntarily. As the statement notes, the union will likely now call for a vote, and the National Labor Relations Board will oversee the election. 

The union will now need to receive 50 percent of the votes within its department, plus one more vote, to win the election. At that point, Activision Blizzard would have to bargain with the union based on election process rules. There’s no word at the moment when this NLRB election will occur.