Quality assurance testers at Activision’s Raven Software studio have formally organized a union called the Game Workers Alliance.
“We formed the Game Workers Alliance (CWA) because my colleagues and I want to have our voices heard,” Raven Software Quality Assurance Lead Brent Reel said in a press release, according to The Verge.
The creation of the union was sparked by years of discord within Activision. Since July 2021, the major gaming company has been tied to accusations of sexual misconduct and harassment. More recently, employees at Raven Software, which primarily works on Call of Duty, raised issues when a dozen workers were laid off. Meanwhile, fellow Call of Duty developer Treyarch was reportedly working to make all contract employees full-time employees.
“On December 3, about a third of my department was informed that their contracts were going to be terminated early. And this was coming off of a five-week stretch of overtime, consistent work,” Onah Rongstad of Raven Software told Tech Crunch.
“We realized in that moment that our day-to-day work and our crucial role in the games industry as QA was not being taken into consideration. And at that time, we decided as Raven QA to start a strike to demonstrate that we are not just disposable parts of the industry, and during that time, it became very apparent that we had majority support within our department for a union.”
While this strike has unfolded, Microsoft acquired Activision for nearly $70 billion. However, Activision failed to acknowledge that the strike was taking place in a recent filings tied to the acquisition. Furthermore, the company has also been accused of engaging in “union-busting activities.” Still, the company says it is in full support of the GWA.
“Activision Blizzard is carefully reviewing the request for voluntary recognition from the CWA, which seeks to organize around three dozen of the company’s nearly 10,000 employees,” Rich George of Activision Blizzard told The Verge.
“We believe that a direct relationship between the company and its team members delivers the strongest workforce opportunities, we deeply respect the rights of all employees under the law to make their own decisions about whether or not to join a union.”
