Raven Software, one of the development teams in charge of producingCall of Dutycontent underActivision Blizzardumbrella, has had a rough couple of months. After it became clear that the company’s quality assurance staff is getting treated extremely poorly by management, word of unionization came about, and the company subsequently entered a feud with its publisher on what the future holds for it.
DespiteActivision Blizzard’s best efforts, Raven Software’s QA team is now in the midst of casting an unionization vote held by the National Labor Relations Board, which the company has been in touch with. According to the latest information from Raven staff, however, the management is still actively attempting to sow doubt about these efforts through continuous anti-union messaging.
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After it became clear thatRaven Software QA employees are officially unionizing, Activision Blizzard seems to have doubled down on its anti-union correspondence. Anonymous Raven developers have told Washington Post that the company management has been sending out messages that suggest unionized employees would be skipped over when it comes to benefits and promotions, telling them to “please vote no,” when casting their ballots.
It’s worth remembering that NLRB was only contacted afterActivision Blizzard refused to recognize Raven’s QA unionization. Speaking with Washington Post, Raven staff said that the mere fact that Activision would work so hard to stop unionization attempts is proof that a union was necessary in the first place. In the meantime, Activision Blizzard claims that a direct relationship with individual team members would be the “best path to achieving individual and company goals.”
Of course, Activision Blizzard does have a long history of promoting anti-union messaging. Late in 2021, anActivision executive sent a union-busting emailto employees which seems to have correctly assessed the situation the company would find itself in just a few months later. Still, despite Activision Blizzard’s attempts to prevent Raven Software from unionizing, everything seems to point to the vote being affirmative in the end.
