Blizzard Albany QA Workers Follows Raven Software, Announce Bid For Unionization
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The Quality Assurance crew at Blizzard Albany – a unit made up of about 20 workers – has filed for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board. The crew requested Activision Blizzard final Thursday to voluntarily acknowledge their union. “I firmly believe that having the union is going to give us the power that we need to make our workplace better,” mentioned Amanda Laven, affiliate take a look at analyst at Blizzard Albany in an interview with The Washington Post. “It’s very exciting to go public with it and hopefully be able to inspire others the way that we’ve been inspired by Raven, and Starbucks and Amazon and all the unions that have come before us.”
Today, we announce a brand new union at Activision Blizzard.
QA is at the moment an undervalued self-discipline within the video games and software program industries. We try to
foster work environments the place we’re revered and compensated for our important position within the
growth course of. 1/5— GWA Albany (@WeAreGWAAlbany) July 19, 2022
Earlier this 12 months, Raven Software QA staff grew to become the primary North American online game union at a serious AAA firm formally voting to unionize. Blizzard Albany, which was previously Vicarious Visions earlier than merging with Blizzard, mentioned that they took cues from the organizing marketing campaign at Raven Software.
We created our union to empower ourselves & safe the next:
– Competitive & truthful compensation, pay transparency, higher advantages & improved well being care
protection
– Address disparities in titles and compensation to precisely acknowledge our contributions &
tasks 3/5— GWA Albany (@WeAreGWAAlbany) July 19, 2022
“Raven has been a huge inspiration to us,” Laven mentioned. “Seeing their process, it’s been demystifying to see them do it first and have an idea of how things go and how the company might respond. … We’ve already gotten to see some someone do it in our own company, and they’ve been very forthcoming with us talking to us about what things are like and what problems they encountered. It’s been very, very helpful and inspiring.”
We at Blizzard Albany pleasure ourselves on our craft and our tradition. With a union, we are going to lastly
have a seat on the desk for negotiating our futures. We ask that @ATVI_AB voluntarily acknowledge
our union & respect our proper to arrange with out retaliation or interference. 5/5— GWA Albany (@WeAreGWAAlbany) July 19, 2022
The staff seeking to unionize at Blizzard Albany name themselves Game Workers Alliance Albany. They say they selected the identify Game Workers Alliance so different elements of the corporate and different video games staff throughout the nation might be part of. “The only way to get a raise above inflation is to take a job at a totally different company,” mentioned a Blizzard Albany worker who isn’t a top quality assurance tester, talking on the situation of anonymity citing worry of retaliation. “If the executives at ABK want their workers to be productive, engaged and invested in the success of their workplace, they must recognize and bargain in good faith with unions. Workers deserve to be treated well and compensated fairly for the work they do, and for too long this has not been the case at Activision Blizzard.”
Activision Blizzard acknowledged the request however it’s unclear proper now if they’d acknowledge the union.
“We deeply respect the rights of all employees under the law to make their own decisions about whether or not to join a union,” wrote Activision Blizzard spokesperson Rich George in an announcement. “We believe that a direct relationship between the company and its employees is the most productive relationship. The company will be publicly and formally providing a response to the petition to the NLRB.”
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