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The quality assurance team at Raven Software, one of the developers working on Activision Blizzard's Call of Duty franchise, is now officially unionizing with the Communication Workers of America (CWA). Now known as the Game Workers Alliance, Raven Software's QA workers are the first to form a unionized group under the umbrella of Activision Blizzard.Working as part of the live team producing and maintaining Call of Duty titles (including Black Ops and Warzone, specifically), Raven Software's quality assurance workers had been having issues with Activision Blizzard for some time now. Namely, the company had been affected by the publisher's overbearing work culture and the refusal to renew contracts, which resulted in an ongoing QA strike as of early December.These ongoing issues have now come to a head, with 78% of the eligible QA workers at Raven Software supporting the unionization process. The new union - Game Workers Alliance - is the very first to announce their unionization of all the developers operating under Activision Blizzard, with the workers requesting for their publisher to voluntarily recognize their union with CWA. According to Raven's QA representatives, Activision Blizzard had previously refused to cooperate, and they are hoping that this does not continue to be the case moving forward.
As per CWA's claims, Activision Blizzard resorted to using various intimidation techniques in its previous communication with Raven's QA team, as well as surveillance tactics which include - but are not limited to - hiring union-busters. "We want to make sure that the passion from these workers is accurately reflected in our workplace and the content we make," said Becka Aigner, a Raven QA tester. "Our union is how our collective voices can be heard by leadership." The publisher's original response to the strike was to issue notices of termination to the QA team, which didn't go well once this information came into the limelight.
According to its official statement, Activision Blizzard is currently reviewing CWA's requests, with a concrete response to the matter pending still. As part of its response, the publisher quoted a number of compensations and professional opportunities it had provided for Raven Software's developers, such as extending their paid time off, improved access to medical benefits, and transitions to full-time employment. Still, unionizing may yet result in a more stable experience for Call of Duty Warzone players, thanks to developers having better control over their workplace conditions.
It goes without saying that the timing is relatively favorable for Raven's QA to unionize. As soon as Microsoft's acquisition is finalized, Acti-Blizz CEO Bobby Kotick is likely to be ousted, with changes to the company's leadership structure following closely behind.
Source: Polygon