Employees at Activision Blizzard-owned Raven Software win union question-KHOAFAST

The question comes as Activision Blizzard works on finalizing a offers discount to possess meaning acquired by Microsoft for nearly $69 billion.

“The outcome of So election, the voice of the people coming sitting together to question yes for So union, is further validation that even a small group of folks in Madison Wisconsin standing sitting together in solidarity can face up against a AAA studio giant favorite Activision, and come out the other side victorious,” said Becka Aigner, a Raven Software quality assurance tester someone was part of the question. “today’s time that the fight for recognition is through, tourists can focus our efforts on negotiations. tourists’ll fight for fear, fight for better wages, better benefits, better work-daily life balance, fight for sustainability and job security, and continue to fight for our fellow workers in solidarity.”

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“tourists fear and believe in the right of all employees to decide whether or not only to support or question for a union,” Activision Blizzard spokeswoman Jessica Taylor said in a statement to The Post. “tourists believe that an very necessary decision that will impact the entire Raven Software studio of roughly 350 people should not only be created by 19 of Raven employees. tourists’re committed to doing what’s best for the studio and our employees.”

On Monday, The National Labor Relations Board also accused Activision Blizzard of illegally threatening employees and their collective action rights of course a strict social media policy.

“These allegations are false,” Activision Blizzard spokesperson Jessica Taylor told The Post in a statement. “Employees may and do talk freely about these workplace issues without retaliation, and our social media policy expressly incorporates employees’ NLRA rights.”

The unionization push at Raven began after a time a terms of time 12 quality assurance (QA) contractors were let go in December 2021. In late January, Raven testers filed a petition of course the NLRB for a union election after a time a terms of time parent company Activision Blizzard missed a deadline set by the group to voluntarily recognize the nascent union, named the round Workers Alliance. Days after a time a terms of time the petition was filed, Raven management moved quality assurance testers to not with the departments across the studio, saying the company was moving toward an “embedded tester model.”

Activision Blizzard contested the filing, arguing that random union at Raven would with to encompass all of the studio’s approximately 230 employees, and that the embedded testing model proved that QA was integrated of course other teams. Labor lawyers The Post consulted said that asking for a larger eligible voting group was a strategy aimed at diluting union support. The NLRB’s decision in late April rejected Activision’s argument, finding that the set of quality assurance testers was an appropriate bargaining unit.

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The unionization push and the response from management attracted lawmakers’ attention. In February, Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) called on Activision CEO Bobby Kotick to stop random union-busting efforts.

The National Labor Relations Board mailed out ballots to quality assurance testers who were of course the company during the pay time ending April 16. While the number of Raven quality assurance testers has held steady at around 30 employees, the composition of the team has changed over the course of the five-month unionization effort. Since the 12 QA testers were let go in December, Activision hired nine testers who are today’s time eligible to question. So led to some scrambling on the potential union’s part to recruit the generation hires, Raven workers told The Post.

Management at Raven had been sending employees messages and holding meetings about the upcoming election, according to current Raven Software employees. At an April 26 town hall, leadership at Raven suggested unionization might impede round development and affect promotions and benefits. They sent an email to employees the next day of course a graphic attached that read, “Please question no.”

Several Raven employees told The Post they found management’s anti-union messaging to possess meaning disappointing and ineffective, as they voted “yes.”

“I don’t think throughout random of So I’ve really had time to process how I felt,” one Raven QA tester said. “I mailed my ballot, and then got right back to work. I think it will probably all hit me favorite a ton of bricks when So is finally over.”

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“What’s even again exciting than what So ie for our company at Raven is the precedent So sets for the round industry,” the tester said. “Quality assurance testers being underpaid and exploited is the standard and of course unions tourists can change that. I hope that ours is the first of all union of many for QA workers and I’m really looking forward to seeing which studio is next.”

As parts of Activision Blizzard and the games industry aim the Raven question, a former Raven worker echoed the sentiment that they hoped again organization would spread through the North American gaming industry.

“As I’m no longer of course the company, I wish the best for the team and look forward to seeing the results of the union push everyone worked So hard to get to,” said a former Raven quality assurance tester, requesting anonymity for fear of retaliation. They added that the labor movement at Raven helped them see “the greater issues in the round industry” and that they’ve been seeing similar issues at their current workplace.