Despite that the purchase of Activision Blizzard is still pending approval and Microsoft saying that if it was for them, Activision Blizzard can get unionized if that is what employees want, but it seems that Activision Blizzard will NOT give up the battle meanwhile they remain independent.
And the first strike came as the official voting happened yesterday and closed 19 against 3 in a 22 vote from Raven Software to have their employees unionized under the Game Workers Alliance, a union that will have representation within the Communication Workers of America.
AS expected, and always against the process and after a campaign for unmotivated employees to vote in favor of union, Activision Blizzard have been telling the media that practically 19 people should not be considered an absolute majority when Raven Software employees 350 people, probably raising a flag that will probably lead to a court battle to declare the voting null.
The Game Workers Alliance said that it is ready to sit with management of Activision Blizzard to begin conversation, hoping that they develop communication channels for the greater good for the company and employees.
A TLDR on what brought Activision and GWA to this week, for years Activision Blizzard have been plagued by the typical toxicity and high allowed sexual harrasment behaivior that reached to an bad high when may regulators began accepting cases of ex and current workers sharing horrible stories, including AB CEO’s Bobby Kotick not only being aware, but having done things on his own.
While Activision Blizzard was forced to wind down their defense, they have stated on multiple occasions that unionizing employees is more harming than a positive thing to happen in the workforce.
Brace yourselves because if Microsoft fails to buy Activision Blizzard, it means that the conglomerate can happily keep fightin unions.