Blizzard Albany QA testers win battle for union votes
QA testers at Blizzard Albany have won the right to vote on whether to form a union. The decision was made after arguments were made before the US National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Employees, organized under the name GWA Albany, tweeted that the vote will take place one month from today.
“We’re pleased to announce that the NLRB has ruled in our favor to hold an election of Albany QA testers at Blizzard. With 94% committed to winning the league, we are. expect to be counted a month from today,” the tweet said.
The 21 quality assurance staff at Blizzard Albany – formerly known as Vicarious Visions – will have the right to vote in union elections.
Parent company Activision Blizzard has argued that all 88 Blizzard Albany employees should vote for the union. This is same argument that Activision Blizzard implemented unsuccessfully earlier this year as Raven Software QA testers are similarly fighting to form a coalition. Including more employees in the voting process, including employees who are not members of and therefore would not benefit from the union, would theoretically reduce the chances of the vote succeeding. .
We are pleased to announce that the NLRB has ruled in our favor to hold an election of Albany QA testers at Blizzard. With a 94% commitment to winning the union, we look forward to counting votes a month from today!#1u #UnionYes
– GWA Albany (@WeAreGWAAlbany) October 19, 2022
Bloomberg report Activision Blizzard also argued that QA testers working on different games should not be in the same union. Of Blizzard Albany’s testers, 5 were working on Diablo 2 Resurrection, 15 working on Diablo 4, and one working on World Of Warcraft. The NLRB has rejected this argument.
Raven Software’s QA staff too won their war vote for their own union, and the vote is success next month.
Microsoft is currently in the process of trying to acquire Activision Blizzard for $69 billion. Microsoft said they won’t block the results the unifying efforts of employees in the publishing house.