Diablo 2: Resurrected dev union condemns Activision Blizzard
Diablo 2: Resurrected developer, Blizzard Albany, has publicly condemned “hostility” from Activision Blizzard, after the Diablo Immortal, Call of Duty, and World of Warcraft publisher allegedly delayed recognising Blizzard Albany’s new employee union.
In July, QA testers at Blizzard Albany, which has also co-developed Destiny and games in the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater series, allegedly asked Activision Blizzard to voluntarily recognise a new workers union there. This followed after workers at Raven Software successfully voted to form the Game Workers’ Alliance, which would represent testers at the Warzone and Call of Duty series co-developer. The formation of the GWA marked the first such union at a major North American gaming studio.
Activision Blizzard initially responded to Blizzard Albany’s petition to unionise, saying, in a statement issued to The Washington Post, “we deeply respect the rights of all employees under the law to make their own decisions about whether or not to join a union. We believe that a direct relationship between the company and its employees is the most productive relationship. The company will be publicly and formally providing a response to the petition to the NLRB (National Labour Relations Board).” However, Game Workers’ Alliance Albany, the union which workers at Blizzard Albany have petitioned to form, now says that Activision Blizzard is “choosing to fight” its efforts by delaying official recognition of the new union.
“It appears that Activision Blizzard’s management has once again decided to take the low road by choosing to fight against our union in spite of the fact that 95% of us have signed union representation cards,” says a GWA Albany Twitter account, which in July shared the
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