The US National Labor Relations Board accepted a recent petition by the aforementioned tester group to allow them to vote for unionization. As you might have expected, Activision Blizzard opposed the move, saying that a larger group of 88 developers should be included in the vote. However, that was shot down, and now, the ruling from the NLRB will allow workers to vote on forming a union. Of course, the top brass at Activision certainly didn’t agree with that move. However, according to a recent statement posted on the company’s internal Slack (shared by A Better ABK group founder Jessica Gonzalez), the company will ultimately respect the process and support the employees’ right to choose how they want to be represented… Probably because they have no other choice. You can read the statement below:
— Jessica Gonzalez💙✨(she/her) BOOnion lady 👻 (@_TechJess) October 19, 2022 The election that was cleared by the ruling will take place soon. Ballots for the voting will be sent out come October 27, the votes will be counted on November 18. Amanda Laven, an associate test analyst at Blizzard Albany, expressed delight at this news, telling The Washington Post that she hopes this sets an example for companies everywhere by not engaging in union-busting practices. If the vote is successful, the Diablo tester group will become the second company within Activision Blizzard to unionize successfully. The studio’s quality assurance department took cues for its organizing campaign from Raven Software. Could this cause a ripple effect across the industry? We’ll continue to report as more developments surface.
