Raven Software’s QA’s Unionisation is a huge victory following the various allegations of abuse and poor working conditions that have been clouding the industry.
Workers of Raven Software, one of the many subsidiaries found under the umbrella of Activision-Blizzard have recently formed the first major labour union at a Major US gaming company.
A small group of the quality assurance developers banded together to vote on whether or not they should unionise under the current conditions. They held a vote which had reached the point of 19-3 in favour of unionising. Activision-Blizzard does have over 10,000 under their employ globally (With 350 working under Raven Software) so the number is not so grand in the larger scheme of things.
However, considering how the industry has suffered through various turbulent times, particularly in terms of how various game companies have treated their workers, this is a victory for all the labour advocates who have wanted better treatment for those within the games industry.
The entire prospect of unionisation was a subject first brought up following major issues that shrouded Activision-Blizzard. It was stated that Activision-Blizzard cultivated a sort of ‘frat boy’ culture that resulted in many of the female being harassed with jokes about rape and sexual assault being rampant. This was followed by California’s department of fair employment suing the company citing Acitivision-Blizzard as a “Breeding ground for harassment”.
Activision-Blizzard was subsequently bought for almost $70 Billion dollars, a titanic amount considering the companies abhorrent reputation. The buyout will result in Bobby Kotick’s removal as CEO pending regulatory approval as the deal is expected to take until June 2023. Bobby Kotick was supposedly not exactly helping as following a series of massive layoff’s at Raven Software many Raven employees going on strike for many weeks, which in turn lead to this unionisation.
The new Raven Software union (@WeAreGWA) Stated this on twitter:
The next step for this new Raven Software union is for them to negotiate a contract with Activision-Blizzard and based on how the company has reacted to the unionisation efforts in which they stated that they were ‘unhappy’ with the way the unionisation was handled, particularly since it only included 22 of the 350 employees at Raven. It seems that the contract negotiations may go on for some time.
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