Following Activision Blizzard’s refusal to voluntarily recognize the union created by QA testers at Raven Software — a company that works on Call of Duty games — the testers went through the election process and chose to join a union last month. In a letter to employees, Activision Blizzard’s current CEO Bobby Kotick stated that the firm recognizes the union and will “engage in good faith negotiations to enter into a collective bargaining agreement.”
Arriving here follows the announcement of layoffs late last year, which was followed by an employee walkout and a five-week strike. There was also the part where Activision Blizzard engaged in union-busting tactics, such as abruptly converting other testers in the company to full-time jobs with benefits and pay raises that the Raven testers did not receive, as well as spreading their roles across the company, which is just one small part of the employee backlash that has occurred within Activision Blizzard over the last year.
Meanwhile, Microsoft, which is aiming to acquire Activision Blizzard, just openly endorsed employee organizing principles. The principles included a paragraph that stated, “We are determined to maintain a close relationship and shared cooperation with all of our employees, including those represented by a union,” without providing any specific guarantees.
