Since a team of 34 quality assurance testers at Raven Software Vote to unify Earlier this month, the studio’s parent company, Activision Blizzard, announced move that takes away that support and makes it harder for workers to organize. This morning, Activision QA Manager Chris Arends delivered the clearest message yet about where executives stand in the consolidation effort and (spoiler) it is adamantly against.
In an internal, locked-down Slack channel Monday morning, Arends asked himself six questions about potential unions and gave the answers to employees from Activision’s point of view, as shared on Twitter by the house. trade union organization. Jessica Gonzalez. Staff cannot reply to messages. Each answer downplays the benefits of a merge, but the fourth prompt offers the most obvious takedown in the organizational process. It reads as follows:
We heard that unions will protect employees and provide employees with job security?
Job security at ABK is due to our ability to create epic entertainment for our fans. A union doesn’t do anything to help us produce world-class games, and the bargaining process is often not quick, often reducing flexibility and possibly rivalry and leading to overt consumption. pole. All of this can affect our ability to continue making great games.
The fifth response argued that union-driven bargaining takes too long to be effective, stating what is evident in the process: “A union cannot act on its own quickly if the The group disagreed with its position.” The final answer reminds employees that they are not required to vote in favor of the union when an election occurs.
On Twitter, Gonzalez called the post “sad.”
This is the latest move from Activision designed to stem the momentum of consolidation at Raven. Just three days after employees announced that they had collected a large number of signatures required to unite under the Game Workers Union name, Raven head Brian Raffel revealed a reorganization plan causing the studio QA department to break down, transferring employees to different teams.
United States Communications, which is backing the GWA, said on Twitter that the disturbance “is nothing more than a tactic to hinder Raven QA employees from exercising their organizational rights.”
Activision also does not voluntarily recognize the GWA, meaning it would have to seek a vote through the NLRB, a process that could take years. Additionally, Activision is promoting a vote that includes all employees at Raven, rather than just QA staff, reducing the likelihood of success.
Arends’ Slack message – trying to convince employees that unions will make their lives slower and worse – matches Activision’s previous tactics.
Activision Blizzard is currently the subject of intense scrutiny from many angles. GWA will be the first alliance at an AAA game development studio in North America, potentially setting the stage for more organizing across the industry. In addition, Activision Blizzard is the subject of a lawsuit and multiple investigations into the reports of Systematic gender discrimination and sexual harassment on set, with incidents believed to date back decades.
And finally, Microsoft is in the process buy Activision Blizzard, Raven Software and all, in a $69 billion deal. This will be the largest acquisition in video game history and it marks the evolution of the industry fusion era. The day after news of the acquisition was released, Activision tell the SEC that no consolidation attempt had been made at its studios, although in previous months, executives had told Raven employees that “consider the consequences“of signing the union card.
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