'Call of Duty: Warzone' studio will try to unionize without Activision Blizzard's blessing

engadget.com:

Activision Blizzard had until 6PM ET on January 25th to voluntarily recognize Game Workers Alliance, a group of Raven Software employees that recently gathered the votes to unionize, backed by Communications Workers of America. That deadline passed without recognition from Activision Blizzard, and Raven employees will now move forward with plans to file for a union election through the National Labor Relations Board.

"At Activision Blizzard, we deeply respect the rights of all employees to make their own decisions about whether or not to join a union," an Activision Blizzard spokesperson said. "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."

In a series of tweets, GWA confirmed its plans to file with the NLRB. 

"This was an opportunity for Activision Blizzard to show a real commitment setting new and improved standards for workers," one tweet read. "Instead, Activision Blizzard has chosen to make a rushed restructuring announcement to try and hinder our right to organize."

Events have been unfolding quickly here, so let's break it down by day:

January 21st: More than 30 quality assurance testers at Raven Software announced they'd gathered enough signatures to unionize, a move that would make Game Workers Alliance the first union at a large-scale North American video game studio. Raven is owned by Activision Blizzard and focuses on supporting Call of Duty: Warzone, so this is about as AAA as it gets. Union signatories asked Activision Blizzard leadership to voluntarily recognize GWA by January 25th.

January 22nd: Raven workers ended a