Activision worker group unionizes, in a videogaming first
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A group of workers at Raven Software - part of Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ:ATVI) have elected to unionize - the first labor union presence at a major videogame publisher.
By a 19-3 vote, a group of Wisconsin-based quality assurance testers at Raven voted in favor of organizing via the Communications Workers of America.
In response to the organization push, Activision Blizzard had worked to have the vote encompass a wider group of Raven workers, which could have diluted the unionizers' vote, but the National Labor Relations Board rejected that approach.
âWe believe that an important decision that will impact the entire Raven Software studio of roughly 350 employees should not be made by fewer than 10% of Raven employees,â the company says.
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) - on track to acquire Activision Blizzard (ATVI) for nearly $69 billion - has said it wouldn't interfere in any unionization efforts.
Raven works on Activision's popular Call of Duty game series.
Elsewhere in Activision labor news, federal labor prosecutors have determined that the company illegally threatened staff and enforced a social media policy that restricted collective action rights, Bloomberg reported. Barring a settlement, the Los Angeles-based regional director of the NLRB will issue a complaint. (That could then be appealed to the NLRB in Washington, D.C., and then to federal court.)
âThese allegations are false,â Activision's Jessica Taylor told Bloomberg. âEmployees may and do talk freely about these workplace issues without retaliation, and our social media policy expressly incorporates employeesâ NLRA rights.â
Also Monday, analysts brought up the Microsoft-Activision deal as they weighed potential buyers for Electronic Arts.