Ex-Dragon Age testers picket BioWare office as others fight for severance

polygon.com:

Ex-Keywords Studios QA testers, who worked on Dragon Age: Dreadwolf, will picket in front of BioWare’s Edmonton office on Tuesday. BioWare attempted to block the picket with an appeal to the Alberta Labour Relations Board, according to industry publication Game Developer, but the board ruled in the union’s favor. “The hope with our actions is [to] convince Keywords to reinstate those they terminated with new work,” former Keywords tester James Russwurm told Polygon.

The rally will begin at 2 p.m. EST on Nov. 7 outside the BioWare office in Edmonton, Alberta in Canada. The QA testers were laid off from Keywords Studios in September after BioWare declined to renew its contract with the company. Though the QA workers were employed by Keywords Studios, they were contracted out to BioWare to work on Dragon Age: Dreadwolf. Without the Dragon Age: Dreadwolf contract, Keywords said there was no work elsewhere for the testers. The workers, who were unionized with the United Food and Commercial Workers Canada Union, Local No. 401, were in negotiations with Keywords Studios when they were laid off.

BioWare attempted to block the picket, claiming that it was not an appropriate location for the rally — the company claimed that the Edmonton office was not the QA workers’ workplace because they worked from home. The Alberta Labour Relations Board ruled in favor of the union, however, as the Keywords testers worked alongside BioWare staff, even if it was just remotely. The picket can’t interrupt access to the building, which houses several offices besides BioWare’s.

Neither Electronic Arts (BioWare’s owner) nor BioWare has responded to Polygon’s request for comment.

Nov. 7 is known as N7 Day in the Mass Effect and BioWare community, a