Activision-Blizzard acquired Proletariat, the indie developer, earlier in the year. They made this acquisition to improve the development process for World of Warcraft because the game developer was getting a reputation for creating hostile work conditions.
One Activision-Blizzard engineer Dustin Yost, who is part of the Proletariat team, has alleged that the rumors surrounding the game-developing giant’s hostile work conditions are true. Activision-Blizzard already have a history of preventing workers from voting for union elections.
“Everyone in the video game industry knows Activision Blizzard’s reputation for creating a hostile work environment, so earlier this year, when we heard that Blizzard was planning to acquire Proletariat, we started to discuss how we could protect the great culture we have created here,” Yost said.
He added that forming a union and negotiating a contract would help them continue their best work and create innovative experiences at the frontier of game development. The group has been named the Proletariat Workers Alliance.
@ CWA
Workers At Activision-Blizzard Are Looking To Join The Communication Workers Of America
The Communication Workers of America (CWA) have succeeded in Wisconsin and New York. Many Activision-Blizzard workers stationed at Boston are now looking to join the CWA after their success with Blizzard Albany and Raven Software.
The union has stated that this development occurred after filing a petition for an election with the National Labor Relations Board, because they have yet to receive a response after requesting voluntary recognition of their group from management without any interference or retaliation.
CWA will approach this situation quite differently to Blizzard Albany and Raven Software, which had more to do with quality assurance workers. In the case of Proletariat, the plan is to build a wall-to-wall union. A wall-to-wall union includes engineers, animators, QA workers, and producers. The unit consists of 57 members.
Activision have since come out with a response stating that their employees are their top priority. Activision also said that they value Proletariat’s contributions and that they have received the petition and will provide a response to the NLRB in a few days.
The CWA had also entered into a labor neutrality agreement with Microsoft, who looked set to acquire Activision-Blizzard for $69m. That was halted after the Federal Trade Commission issued an order to block the acquisition earlier in the month.
CWA Secretary-Treasurer Sara Steffens stated how corporations as large as Microsoft have allowed workers to choose if they want union representation and how there is still time for Activision-Blizzard to do the same.
Proletariat Workers Alliance Aiming For Wholesale Changes
Proletariat’s mission statement is planning to retain the healthcare plan, allow remote work, have a flexible FTO policy, codify professional development opportunities and diversity, equity and inclusion policies, change the culture around over time, and create a transparent process.
“We want management to respect our ideas and our commitment to improving our company and our industry. A union gives us a seat at the table and will help us create the conditions that will allow us to build careers here and not hop from job to job hoping that things will be better at the next place. Nothing will get better unless we work together to make it better,” said Robbie Russell, a Senior Test Analyst II at Proletariat.
Activision-Blizzard haven’t covered themselves in glory here, and it looks like they’re still stalling. Even if the Microsoft deal doesn’t go through, they should actively change some of their employment policies. They shouldn’t be so dependent on Microsoft pulling through. The Proletariat Workers Alliance also feels very empowered at the minute, and Activision-Blizzard can’t stay quiet for too long.
