Devs protest Activision Blizzard's soft response to abortion rights reversal

gamedeveloper.com:

Activision Blizzard workers held yet another protest yesterday, one year after the State of California sued the company for allegedly fostering a culture of toxicity, sexual harassment, and discrimination. 

The walkout, organized by worker advocacy group ABK Workers Alliance, rallied developers across several Activision Blizzard studios to protest the company's continuing sluggishness to combat gender inequity. In particular, the group took aim at the company's slow (and apparently inadequate) response to the reversal of Roe v. Wade.

At Blizzard headquarters in Irvine, California, protesting employees were joined by representatives of Game Workers of Southern California, the Orange County Labor Federation, labor union Code-CWA, and more.

Code-CWA previously helped workers at Activision Blizzard subsidiary Raven Software form the first video game industry union at a major North American game company. It is currently helping workers at Activision Blizzard Albany with a similar effort.

Organizers with A Better ABK explained to Game Developer that though turnout at the Irvine event was smaller than previous protests, participating employees from three other Activision Blizzard offices meant this walkout was the largest one to date. An estimated 200-300 employees participated at in-person events, with another 100 participating virtually in the work stoppage.

Employees at the event spoke with frustration about how Activision Blizzard has handled the crisis of the last 12 months. The protest was organized around the company's tepid response to the United States Supreme Court decision to reverse Roe v. Wade and allow abortion bans to go into effect across the country, but the issues at play are the ones that have plagued Activision