Blizzard Albany is Trying to Unionize

gamerant.com:

Efforts to unionize have been rapidly increasing in the video game industry. Some of the hardest workers that have been some of the most disrespected and least paid are now taking up the fight to improve their working conditions and pay. The latest unionization efforts once again come fromQuality Assurance Testers within the Activision umbrella.

The Blizzard Albany studio, formerly known as Vicarious Visions, filed a petition to unionize with the National Labor Relations Board on Thursday that will potentially see the 20-person staff of QA Testers at the Call of Duty support studio form a new union within Activision Blizzard. This step is only the beginning of the road to unionization that could end with a majority vote in favor of unionization.

Activision Creates Publishing Page on Steam

Off the heels of the Raven Software QA Testers winning their unionization vote, Blizzard Albany aims to be the next group of unionized workers in gaming. A statement to The Washington Post from Amanda Laven, Associate Test Analyst at Blizzard Albany, stated that they were inspired by the efforts of the Raven QA Testers as well as nationwide unionization efforts at Starbucks stores and Amazon warehouses. Under the name Game Workers Alliance Albany, they also have confidence that their efforts will be additional motivation for others in the video game industry to continue the unionization wave.

Activision Blizzard might make this easy for Blizzard Albany, as it didn't with the Raven Software QA Testers. Blizzard Albany workers could potentially be subjected to carefully worded union-busting tactics that Activision was accused of taking up in the past, which could cause division within the Blizzard Albany ranks and see the unionization effort