US Labor Relations Board says Blizzard Albany QA union vote can proceed despite Activision's objections

pcgamer.com:

The US National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruled yesterday that 21 QA staff at Blizzard Albany, formerly known as Vicarious Visions, could go ahead with a planned vote to unionise, the Washington Post reports(opens in new tab).

The NLRB ruling was made necessary after parent company Activision Blizzard took issue with the QA staff's plans. Activision argued that all 88 staff currently working on Diablo games at Blizzard Albany should get a vote in the unionisation process, rather than just 21 members of the QA team. Labour experts that spoke to the Post described this move as a tactic to, in effect, water down enthusiasm for unionisation in the voting pool and diminish the vote's chances of succeeding.

Activision has also drawn criticism in the past for its hiring of Reed Smith, a law firm specialising in "union avoidance(opens in new tab)" techniques, despite a pledge to negotiate with unionising staff "in good faith(opens in new tab)". Reed Smith's training documents have described unions as exploiting «Lazy, non-productive, or inefficient» employees(opens in new tab), «Whiner and complainer» types, and workers with a «something-for-nothing attitude».

The NLRB dismissed Activision's arguments against allowing the Blizzard Albany QA staff to proceed with a unionisation vote, noting that the low pay of the QA team ($41,995 a year) relative to other staff at the studio made them notably different from other staff working on Diablo 4. The board also dismissed Activision's argument that staff working on different games—some of the 21 QA staff work on Diablo 2 Resurrected, some on Diablo 4, and one works on WoW—shouldn't belong to the same bargaining unit.

A statement given to the Post by Activision Blizzard spokesman Rich