Employees at another Activision Blizzard studio formed a union. The proletariat, who developed Spellbreak, are purchased by Blizzard in June and put into operation on World Of Warcraft: Dragonflight. Now, the employee has formed a union with the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and is asking Activision Blizzard to voluntarily recognize it.
“Everybody in the video game industry knows Activision Blizzard has a reputation for creating a hostile work environment, so earlier this year, when we heard that Blizzard was planning to acquire Proletariat, we asked start discussing how we can protect the great culture we’ve created here,” said Dustin Yost, Software Engineer at Proletariat, in a press release. The newly formed group, called the Proletarian Workers’ Union (PWA), also published their vision statement in an article. Twitter theme.
The PWA is comprised of Proletariat employees from different parts of the company, including “animators, designers, engineers, producers, and quality assurance workers”. That sets the PWA apart from the two previous unions that were formed at the Activision Blizzard studio earlier this year, with a particular focus on quality assurance staff at Raven Software and Blizzard Albany.
In the case of both of those studios, Activision Blizzard refused to voluntarily recognize the union, leaving employees to contend with the US National Labor Relations Board. In both cases, the NLRB ruled in favor of the workers, and both groups then held formal employee votes to form a union.
As part of those wars, the CWA – under which the unions Raven Software and Blizzard Albany were also formed – filed a unfair labor costs against Activision Blizzard, accusing the publisher of “discrediting the union, threatening to withhold pay raises and improved benefits from unionized workers, and provide workers with benefits. impression that their union affiliation and/or support is under scrutiny.”
Activision Blizzard is facing battles on other fronts. Microsoft tendered to buy publisher for $69 billion, but earlier this month The US Federal Trade Commission sued to block the acquisition. Activision Blizzard has previously expressed its intention to resist any challenge to the deal. While Activision Blizzard sought to prevent employees from forming unions, Microsoft signed a neutral agreement on labor with TTK.
Prior to being acquired by Activision Blizzard, Proletariat was best known for developing the royal mage Spellbreak. Spellbreak will be discontinued early next year.
