Raven Software QA Workers Officially Vote to Unionize

ign.com:

A group of quality assurance employees at Raven Software have officially voted in favor of unionization with the National Labor Relations Board, with a final vote total of 19 for and three against.

The vote count was announced today over an official webcast meeting. Approximately 28 employees were considered eligible to vote, 24 votes were submitted, and two of the votes were challenged and rendered invalid. The remaining group voted to legally form the Game Workers Alliance, making it the first North American video game union at a AAA gaming company. Indie studio Vodeo Games unionized late last year.

This move legally allows members of Game Workers Alliance to bargain with Activision Blizzard management over their employment contract, a process we are likely to see unfold in the coming weeks and months. But at the moment, it seems unlikely that the publisher will make this process easy. The company has reportedly been actively discouraging Raven Software employees from voting in favor of the union both through town halls and official emails, and a Bloomberg report from earlier today indicates that the NLRB is readying an official complaint suggesting their threats were illegal union-busting.

Raven QA's road to unionization has in the news since December of last year, when Activision Blizzard laid off 'at least a dozen' Raven Software quality assurance contractors amid a studio restructuring. Remaining members of the QA team subsequently held a walkout to protest the sudden layoffs, gaining the support of a number of other Activision Blizzard employees across multiple studios.

The QA team maintained a strike for several weeks, demanding full-time positions for members of the Raven QA department, including those who were let