Activision Blizzard’s lawyers want all workers to have a say in the vote to form a union at Blizzard Albany, according to a new Washington Post report. The dispute arose amid a hearing at the National Labor Relations Board to determine who should be allowed to vote in the affiliated union, the quality control team, as was the case with Raven Studio, Activision Blizzard’s first union. , or everyone. throughout the company.
The Post reported that Blizzard’s lawyers showed the Diablo 4 trailer in their arguments in an attempt to back up their claim that everyone involved in developing the franchise should have a say in whether the campus should be unionized. However, he didn’t mention why he showed this trailer to support the argument, and Blizzard didn’t explain why he released the names and occupations of various employees working on the project.
As The Post’s Shannon Lao noted, the move has raised some concerns given recent incidents with Bungie in which a content creator banned from YouTube for promotional cheating harassed and threatened members of the Destiny development team.
The instinct to delay organizing efforts is always present among employers,” said Wilma Liebman, former president of the National Labor Relations Board. “The reasons for the delay can vary, including not only the obvious reasons (the delay may be unavoidable) but also possible transactional reasons. [with Microsoft.]”
Lao also said that one of the reasons behind Blizzard’s argument to expand the voting pool is the hope that including more staff outside of QA might reduce the chances of a successful vote.
PCGN has reached out to Activision Blizzard for comment, but has not received a response as of press time.
US labor law required Activision Blizzard to recognize and bargain with the QA Raven union by early 2022, though that didn’t stop the company from retaliating by denying union members the right to pay raises.
The NLRB will make a decision on the Blizzard Albany vote on August 25.
Source : PC Gamesn
