Jason Schreier
Fri, December 10, 2021,
(Bloomberg) -- Some employees at Activision Blizzard Inc. are taking the initial, early steps toward organizing in an industry that isn’t unionized.
In collaboration with the media labor union, Communications Workers of America, employees of the U.S.’s second-largest video game publisher are asking colleagues to sign a union authorization card, which could eventually lead to a vote across the company. Their efforts coincide with the creation of a strike fund to support hundreds of workers who have been participating in a work stoppage since Monday in protest of layoffs at one of Activision Blizzard’s studios.
Workers at Santa Monica, California-based Activision, known for games like Call of Duty and World of Warcraft, have staged three protests since July, after a California agency sued the company over allegations of sexual harassment and gender-based discrimination. Issues have snowballed since then, including an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission and a class-action shareholder lawsuit. Employees and the Communications Workers of America also filed an unfair labor practice complaint against the company.
Organization around the protests and a call for a strike is being initiated by the ABK Workers Alliance, which represents the employees from the company’s largest studios, Activision, Blizzard and King. The Washington Post earlier reported on the unionization efforts.
A spokesperson for ABK said the group had already gathered several hundred signatures before this move, as it has been working with the CWA and the Campaign to Organize Digital Employees for months. If the group can collect union cards from 30% of workers in any of Activision Blizzard’s business units, it will be able to call for votes within those units, the spokesperson said.
Activision workers’ biggest concern right now is having a voice in what’s happening at the company, the spokesperson said, adding that workers have been “ignored and swept aside” for months.
In an email to employees, Activision said it supports workers’ legal right to decide whether to join a union. “We ask only that you take time to consider the consequences of your signature on the binding legal document presented to you by CWA,” Activision said. “Achieving our workplace culture aspirations will best occur through active, transparent dialogue between leaders and employees that we can act upon quickly.”
Organizers slam Activision Blizzard for “union busting”
Megan Farokhmanesh
Fri, December 10, 2021
Activision Blizzard is asking employees to “take time to consider the consequences” of workers’ recent efforts to unionize, a tactic some organizers are calling "union busting."
Driving the news: Chief administrative officer Brian Bulatao sent an internal email on Friday, claiming that employees signing union cards “will have signed over to [the Communications Workers of America] the exclusive right to ‘represent [you]’...that means your ability to negotiate all your own working conditions will be turned over to CWA.”
“Achieving our workplace culture aspirations will best occur through active, transparent dialogue between leaders and employees that we can act upon quickly,” Bulatao continues.
A Better ABK organizer Jessica Gonzalez told Axios that the company’s “incompetence has been showing and continues to show with this obvious union busting intimidation tactic.”
Why it matters: Activision Blizzard’s message is a direct response to employees’ continued efforts to unionize.
Catch up quick: Employees at Call of Duty: Warzone developer Raven Software walked out earlier this week after a dozen quality assurance contractors were told their contracts would not be renewed.
Those employees have not yet returned to work and have instead entered strike territory.
One organizer estimates at least 200 people have walked out over Tuesday and Wednesday alone.
Organizers have also begun collecting union authorization cards as they work to gather the support needed to form a union.
An Activision Blizzard spokesperson told Axios that it “supports our employees’ right to express their opinions in a legal, safe, and peaceful manner, without fear of retaliation, and their NLRA rights in general.”
The other side: “It's disappointing to see Activision Blizzard management, at yet another choice point when they could have done the right thing, double down and continue to take the low road,” said CWA National Organizing Director Tom Smith in a statement to Axios.
“Union avoidance campaigns waste resources that ABK management could otherwise be using to address the serious concerns at the company such as compensating the victims of sexual harassment and discrimination.”
The big picture: Organizers say leadership rarely, if ever, acknowledges their efforts and asks.
“The fact that we're being so routinely ignored, just really speaks to the fact that our leadership doesn't care,” an organizer told Axios. “The only way to make them care is to put public pressure on them — to make them see that caring is profitable.”
“We are turning so many great people out of our companies and so many great people out of the industry with these culture issues. That stuff has a huge impact on our ability to make games.”
Two organizers at A Better ABK told Axios that Activision Blizzard would no longer compensate workers who walked out past Dec. 8.
Organizers announced a strike fund Thursday to support workers in their walkout that’s already raised more $241,000.
“We didn't want to jump straight to unionization,” an organizer told Axios, noting leadership’s lack of action as a driving force.
“We had other tools in our kit that we tried leveraging, using walkouts petitions, raising our voices internally.”
“The fact that this has gone on for so long, we really did feel the need to make sure that people were secure, especially because... we can't intermittently strike.”
A Better ABK continues to gather the necessary 30 percent support to hold an election to unionize in the wake of leadership’s unwillingness to work with them.
An organizer tells Axios that the timing of these events were coincidental to Thursday's annual show, The Game Awards.
They credit management’s lack of acknowledgment of A Better ABK’s requests, on top of the Raven walkouts, with the decision to pursue that path.
“It was felt by several people that the time was right,” they said.
“We've been getting slammed,” they added of the response to signing unions cards so far. “The service has gone down once or twice... because so many people were trying to sign up.”
Activision Blizzard Devs Announce Work Stoppage And Strike Fund
Ethan Gach
Thu, December 9, 2021
People gather outside Blizzard headquarters in Irvine, California to protest conditions at its parent company.
Employees at publishing giant Activision Blizzard, who formed the ABK Worker Alliance, have called on supporters today to donate to a strike fund. They have announced their intention to stop working, in protest of their management’s ongoing response to months of lawsuits and reports about widespread sexual harassment and discrimination across the company.
“Today, the ABK Worker’s Alliance announces the initiation of its strike,” the group wrote on Twitter. “We encourage our peers in the Game Industry to stand with us in creating lasting change.” The ABK Worker Alliance also linked to a strike fund set up on GoFundMe, where it calls on supporters to help it raise $1 million to take care of employees during the stoppage.
In the months since, we’ve seen CEO Bobby Kotick and the Board of Directors protect abusers and only hold perpetrators accountable after the events were brought to light by outside media. We’ve seen Activision hire law firm WilmerHale, known for union busting, to disrupt and impede the improvement efforts of Activision-Blizzard workers. We’ve seen Raven Software workers lured by the promise of promotion, only to be terminated shortly after relocation on top of the already underappreciated and severely underpaid working conditions of ABK workers across the company. These, and many other events have caused an alliance of Activision-Blizzard employees to initiate a work stoppage until demands are met and worker representation is finally given a place within the company.
The Washington Post’s Shannon Liao reports that the ABK Worker Alliance will also be calling on employees across Activision Blizzard to sign union authorization cards in a new massive step toward unionization.
These latest labor actions comes as quality assurance testers at Raven Software, the studio in charge of Call of Duty: Warzone, walked off the job earlier this week to protest recently announced layoffs. While 500 contractors across Activision Blizzard would be converted to full-time, the company said 20 would be terminated near the end of January, a move Raven developers said would hurt Warzone’s ongoing development and maintenance.
It’s currently unclear how many will be involved in the larger work stoppage ABK Worker’s Alliance announced today. Last month, over 1,500 employees at the roughly 10,000 person company signed the letter calling on Kotick to resign.
Activision Blizzard and ABK Worker’s Alliance did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Ethan Gach
Thu, December 9, 2021
People gather outside Blizzard headquarters in Irvine, California to protest conditions at its parent company.
Employees at publishing giant Activision Blizzard, who formed the ABK Worker Alliance, have called on supporters today to donate to a strike fund. They have announced their intention to stop working, in protest of their management’s ongoing response to months of lawsuits and reports about widespread sexual harassment and discrimination across the company.
“Today, the ABK Worker’s Alliance announces the initiation of its strike,” the group wrote on Twitter. “We encourage our peers in the Game Industry to stand with us in creating lasting change.” The ABK Worker Alliance also linked to a strike fund set up on GoFundMe, where it calls on supporters to help it raise $1 million to take care of employees during the stoppage.
In the months since, we’ve seen CEO Bobby Kotick and the Board of Directors protect abusers and only hold perpetrators accountable after the events were brought to light by outside media. We’ve seen Activision hire law firm WilmerHale, known for union busting, to disrupt and impede the improvement efforts of Activision-Blizzard workers. We’ve seen Raven Software workers lured by the promise of promotion, only to be terminated shortly after relocation on top of the already underappreciated and severely underpaid working conditions of ABK workers across the company. These, and many other events have caused an alliance of Activision-Blizzard employees to initiate a work stoppage until demands are met and worker representation is finally given a place within the company.
The Washington Post’s Shannon Liao reports that the ABK Worker Alliance will also be calling on employees across Activision Blizzard to sign union authorization cards in a new massive step toward unionization.
These latest labor actions comes as quality assurance testers at Raven Software, the studio in charge of Call of Duty: Warzone, walked off the job earlier this week to protest recently announced layoffs. While 500 contractors across Activision Blizzard would be converted to full-time, the company said 20 would be terminated near the end of January, a move Raven developers said would hurt Warzone’s ongoing development and maintenance.
It’s currently unclear how many will be involved in the larger work stoppage ABK Worker’s Alliance announced today. Last month, over 1,500 employees at the roughly 10,000 person company signed the letter calling on Kotick to resign.
Activision Blizzard and ABK Worker’s Alliance did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Shareholder objects to Activision CEO Kotick's renomination to Coca-Cola board
Bobby Kotick, chief executive officer of Activision Blizzard, attends the annual Allen and Co. Sun Valley media conference in Sun Valley, Idaho
Thu, December 9, 2021, 9:51 AM·1 min read
(Reuters) -A Coca-Cola Co shareholder asked the beverage giant on Thursday to not renominate Activision Blizzard Inc's Chief Executive Officer Bobby Kotick to its board, as the video game company deals with lawsuits on workplace harassment.
Allegations of sexual harassment and discrimination at Activision earlier this year led to more than 20 employees being fired and 20 more individuals facing other forms of disciplinary action.
SOC Investment Group, which is also an adviser to pension funds, said Kotick bears "primary responsibility for the longstanding 'frat boy' corporate culture" that has put Activision under pressure and brought in lawsuits.
"The time and attention that Kotick will need to devote to the cultural crisis at Activision ought to preclude his ability to effectively serve as a director of a major global brand," SOC said.
Coca-Cola did not immediately respond to a request for comment, while Activision declined to comment.
SOC said it would also oppose Kotick and Coca-Cola's lead independent director Maria Elena Lagomasino's re-election, if Kotick was nominated.
(Reporting by Nivedita Balu and Tiyashi Datta in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)
Bobby Kotick, chief executive officer of Activision Blizzard, attends the annual Allen and Co. Sun Valley media conference in Sun Valley, Idaho
Thu, December 9, 2021, 9:51 AM·1 min read
(Reuters) -A Coca-Cola Co shareholder asked the beverage giant on Thursday to not renominate Activision Blizzard Inc's Chief Executive Officer Bobby Kotick to its board, as the video game company deals with lawsuits on workplace harassment.
Allegations of sexual harassment and discrimination at Activision earlier this year led to more than 20 employees being fired and 20 more individuals facing other forms of disciplinary action.
SOC Investment Group, which is also an adviser to pension funds, said Kotick bears "primary responsibility for the longstanding 'frat boy' corporate culture" that has put Activision under pressure and brought in lawsuits.
"The time and attention that Kotick will need to devote to the cultural crisis at Activision ought to preclude his ability to effectively serve as a director of a major global brand," SOC said.
Coca-Cola did not immediately respond to a request for comment, while Activision declined to comment.
SOC said it would also oppose Kotick and Coca-Cola's lead independent director Maria Elena Lagomasino's re-election, if Kotick was nominated.
(Reporting by Nivedita Balu and Tiyashi Datta in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)
No comments:
Post a Comment