Proletariat leadership won't voluntarily recognize PWA union
The leadership team at Spellbreak developer Proletariat won't voluntarily recognize unionizing workers and has requested a full union election through the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).
In an update posted on the Proletariat website, studio bosses said that some employees have pushed for an anonymous vote and described the move as the "fairest option."
Proletariat staff formed the Proletariat Workers Alliance (PWA) with help from Communication Workers of America (CWA) in December last year, and called on management to voluntarily recognize the union.
The move came six months after the studio was acquired by Blizzard Entertainment, with that news coming one day after the developer announced it would be shutting down Spellbreak in 2023.
PWA includes employees from a number of disciplines such as QA, animation, design, and engineering, and according to members was formed (partly) in response to the studio being acquired by Activision Blizzard.
"We are unionizing [...] to set the studio up for success as we enter Proletariat's next chapter joining forces with Activision Blizzard King," reads a vision statement posted by PWA in December. "We aim to be a beloved game studio with a diverse team, doing our best work and creating innovative experiences at the frontier of development."
Studio leaders, however, claim their top priority is to "keep our employees informed and educated," and as such won't ratify the union without an NLRB vote.
"Besides [a vote] being the fairest option, this also allows employees to get all the information and various points of view. This is an important decision, everyone deserves some time to process it and to better understand its potential impacts," reads a statement.
"The Proletariat
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