US senator warns Bobby Kotick about undermining unionisation
Marie Dealessandri
Features Editor
Thursday 24th February 2022
Activision Blizzard
Raven Software
US senator Tammy Baldwin addressed a letter to Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick asking him to "negotiate in good faith" with Raven Software workers.
As reported by the Washington Post, Baldwin also sent the letter to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.
The senator for Wisconsin, who is a member of the Democratic Party, said she's been following Raven's efforts to unionise, and is "disturbed" by reports pointing to management's attempts to "disrupt" unionisation at the studio.
"I urge you and the management at Raven Software to negotiate in good faith with the workers and suspend any efforts to undermine your employees' legal right to form a union and collectively bargain," Baldwin wrote to Kotick.
She added that she is "troubled" by the recent reports of structural changes at Raven in the wake of the studio's unionisation efforts, which could jeopardise the formation of the Game Workers Alliance union.
She described the studio's reorganisation as a potential attempt "to frustrate efforts by the testers to form a bargaining unit comprised only of quality assurance testers," as the latter will be embedded within each department going forward, rather than being one standalone group.
The letter was sent off the back of the National Labor Relations Board hearing that saw Raven workers face Activision Blizzard management to discuss who should get to vote on the union's formation. The Game Workers Alliance wants the union to represent Raven's QA department, while Activision is pushing for the vote to include the entire studio. The union needs over 50% of the votes to be officially formed, with the chances of it happening lowering if more
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