First Major US Video Game Union Must Now Negotiate With Activision
Employees of Activision Blizzard subsidiary, Raven Software, have voted in favor of unionizing, becoming the first “major” video games union in the United States. The controversial Activision Blizzard has been at the center of a number of lawsuits over the last few years, with calls for unionization due to reports of mistreatment, harassment, and abuse in the workplace. However, Activision Blizzard has discouraged unionization in the past, stating that change could be made faster with more direct and open discussions between employees and management.
This is far from the first time that video game companies have addressed unionization and expressed their disapproval of it. Discussions of unions picked up notably in 2018 and 2019 following the development and release of a number of AAA games, when companies were coming under fire for allegedly having their employees adhere to crunch schedules that sometimes involved workweeks of up to 100 hours. Despite many companies siding against the formation of unions, the tide has begun to turn in the gaming industry, and late last year, Beast Breaker developer Vodeo Games formed North America’s first video game union.
Related: Activision Blizzard Lost 60 Million Players in Last Year, Mainly in CoD
As reported by Washington Post, QA testers at Raven Software, a group that was recently given full-time positions at Activision, have voted to unionize, becoming the first “major” U.S.-based union in the gaming industry. The vote passed 19 to three. The Game Workers Alliance is now tasked with negotiating with management at Activision Blizzard and Raven Software to produce an employee-friendly contract. However, Jason Schreier on Twitter notes from a Bloomberg article that, “management
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