Activision Blizzard has been the subject of intense criticism this past week, as the state of California has filed a lawsuit against the video game company for gender discrimination, alleging sexual harassment, a toxic work environment, and other issues. Activision's reaction to the lawsuit has thrown fuel on the fire, to the point where various publications have decided to stop covering the company's gaming news at all and hundreds of employees have spoken out publicly against it. Now it seems Activision Blizzard employees are taking things a step further by striking on Wednesday, July 28 in protest of the company's response to the lawsuit.
Activision Blizzard employees will hold their walkout from 9am to 6pm PT, striking in front of Blizzard's campus. Activision Blizzard employees who are working at home due to the COVID-19 pandemic or whatever reason have been asked to not do any work on Wednesday. The Activision Blizzard employees that are striking have four primary demands that they want executives of the company to meet.
The first demand is an end to mandatory arbitration clauses in employee contracts, with employees alleging that these clauses "protect abusers." Activision Blizzard employees also seek the adoption of new company policies when it comes to recruiting, interviewing, and hiring, with the goal to "improve representation among employees at all levels." The striking employees believe that the lack of these policies has led to discrimination in their workplace, with less qualified men being chosen over women, nonbinary people, and other members of marginalized groups that are more deserving of those rules.
The third demand being made by Activision Blizzard employees is "publication of data on relative compensation," which essentially means transparent pay. The lack of this, the protestors believe, is what has caused some groups of people at the company being underpaid and passed over for promotions.
And finally, the Activision Blizzard employees staging the walkout are asking for a special Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion task force to hire a third party that will audit the company, its Human Resources department, and executives. The hope is that this will enable the employees to evaluate the issues with the way Activision Blizzard is currently run and develop solutions to those problems.
Video game company employees have participated in walkouts before, like the famous Riot Games walkout that took place a couple of years ago. Despite these organized employee demonstrations, however, there has been no serious unionization in the video game industry to date. The Activision Blizzard employees who are striking tomorrow have reportedly not discussed plans to unionize at this time.
Source: Kotaku