"Activision is deeply committed to the wellbeing of all of our teams, including our QA workforce," the statement reads.
By Jared Moore
Updated: 6 Jan 2022
Activision Blizzard is currently facing serious ongoing allegations of harassment and mistreatment of marginalized workers. To learn more, please visit our timeline as well as our in-depth report on the subject.
A spokesperson for Activision has finally issued a response to the ongoing strikes by employees at the company. While the spokesperson has said that leadership has "engaged" with staff over their concerns, the strike action has now entered its third week, with an ABK Workers Alliance Strike Fund having now raised over $350,000.
Activision Blizzard Staff Are Going on Strike, and They Want Your Help - IGN Daily Fix
In a statement issued to gamesindustry.biz, a spokesperson from Activision has said that management at Raven Software has been speaking to its employees in order to listen to their concerns. "Activision is deeply committed to the wellbeing of all of our teams, including our QA workforce," the statement read.
Many Activision staff are striking in solidarity with members of Raven's QA department, whose contracts were terminated last month.
"Raven leadership has engaged in dialogue with its staff to hear concerns and explain the company's overall investment in development resources. As previously announced, we are growing our overall investment in development and operations resources and converting nearly 500 temporary workers to full-time employees across our studios, the largest conversion in Activision's history.
"For the 12 temporary workers at Raven whose agreements were not extended, we provided an extended notice period, included payment for the two-week holiday break, and will be working directly with those that need relocation assistance. Raven is full of people dedicated to improving the culture at Activision, and we look forward to partnering with employees to do that work together."
The statement from Activision comes just days after the ABK Workers alliance issued a statement on Twitter detailing a letter sent by Raven QA to leadership on January 4. As part of the letter, the group issued a number of topics that it wished to discuss with leadership, including the context of the situation from the leadership's perspective, its goals for the QA department moving forward, and relocation packages for those affected who moved to Wisconsin.
It's unclear what discussions have taken place thus far. However, as of yet there has been no confirmation that the strike action is set to cease. In order to fund the strikes, the ABK Workers Alliance has set up a Strike Fund. According to the Workers Alliance, the fundraiser, which has now gained over $360,000 (at the time of writing), will be used to support with wages for striking coworkers, and to assist with relocation costs for any Raven QA who the group believes has had to move unassisted "at the behest of A/B/K".
For a more detailed insight into the initial strike action being taken by members of the studio, please read our in-depth article on the subject.
Jared Moore is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.
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