21 video game studio employees behind the development of Call of Duty: Warzone will vote to have their union officially recognized. Raven Software, a company owned by Activision Blizzard, has received permission from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to hold a union election. The employees affected by the April 29 vote belong exclusively to the studio’s quality assurance department.
First syndicate in the big-budget American video game world
In January 2022, Raven Software’s Quality Assurance division created the Game Workers Alliance, America’s first union of video game workers within a company that produces AAA games (big budget games). Recently acquired by Microsoft, Activision Blizzard, a company with tumultuous news, has never recognized this union. It is supported by the Communications Workers of America (CWA), the largest American union of workers in the world of media and communication.
Sony wants ads in PlayStation games
The National Labor Relations Board has authorized about 20 quality assurance testers to hold a union vote, reports the New York Times. Jennifer Hadsall, director of the NLRB, disagreed with Activision. The company has indeed tried to put an end to the unionization of employees. For example, she dispatched the QA (Quality Assurance) testers within Raven Software while they always worked as members of the same team.
For the NLRB, this is clearly an attempt to weaken employee engagement. Among other maneuvers to hinder the creation of a union, Activision has expressed the wish that the organization integrates all of the 230 employees of the studio. TechCrunch specifies that it takes more than 50% of the votes to win the election. By increasing the number of voters, Activision wants to make a majority more difficult to obtain.
We are pleased that after reviewing the evidence, the National Labor Relations Board rejected Raven Software management’s attempts to undermine our efforts to form a union. It’s now time for Raven management to stop trying to prevent us from exercising our rights.
— Game Workers Alliance ?#WeAreGWA (@WeAreGWA) April 23, 2022
A crucial role in the development of video games
The vote will therefore be held by email on April 29 and May 20 for a counting of the votes set for April 23. The Game Workers Alliance said it “Now is the time for Raven Software management to end its attempts to prevent us from exercising our rights. We look forward to voting for our union and winning. »
As a reminder, the creation of the union was motivated by several reasons. In December 2021, sixty people resigned in protest of Activision’s decision to terminate twelve temporary quality assurance worker contracts. An approach by the video game giant which had been considered “ brutal and severe by employees.
The other reason comes from the practice of the crunch, a period of intensive work, for five weeks on the development of Call of Duty: Warzone with lots of overtime. Moment during which the QA testers, in charge of testing the games in every corner to spot all the bugs, became aware of the lack of valuation of their work, compared to their crucial role in the video game industry.
Activision tries to weaken the movement
An Activision spokesperson said the company was “disappointed that a decision that could significantly impact the future of the entire studio was going to be made by less than 10% of employees” and he added that the company is considering whether it can appeal the decision.
The video game publisher recalls that earlier in April, it improved working conditions in Quality Assurance. 1,100 QA contracts have been converted to full-time jobs and their minimum wage has been increased to $20 an hour. Only Raven Software testers do not benefit from this increase. The company claims that it was unable to do so because of the NLRB’s interference in the process of organizing the employees. On this specific point, the CWA accuses Activision of being deceptive in an attempt to weaken the labor movement.
Following Microsoft’s takeover of Activision Blizzard, the tech giant said it would not prevent the formation of a union. The Call of Duty publisher has unwittingly become one of the major protagonists in the history of the unionization of video game workers in the United States.