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Activision Blizzard Fails to Recognize Raven Software Union

Activision Blizzard Fails to Recognize Raven Software Union
Photo Credit: Raven Software
Activision Blizzard Fails to Recognize Raven Software Union
Photo Credit: Raven Software

Members of the Raven Software QA team began the process of unionization last week. With it, they gave a deadline of Tuesday, January 25th at 6:00 PM for Activision Blizzard to formally recognize them. Should Activsion Blizzard have done that, the Raven QA strike would have ended.

6:00 PM came and went without recognizaiton.

As a result, the 34 members of the QA team will begin filing for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), according to the Washington Post. Brian Raffel, the head of Raven Software, sent out an email to staff after the deadline passed.

“After carefully reviewing and considering the Communications Workers of America (CWA)’s initial request of the company, we worked quickly to find a mutually acceptable solution with the CWA that would have led to an expedited election process. Unfortunately, the parties could not reach an agreement. As a result, we expect that the union will soon be moving forward with the filing of a petition to the NLRB for an election of eligible Raven employees. If filed, the company will respond formally to that petition promptly…

“Let me be clear, at Raven and across Activision Blizzard, we deeply respect the rights of all employees to make their own decisions about whether or not to join a union. While we believe that a direct relationship between managers and team members allows us to quickly respond and deliver the strongest results and opportunities for employees, we will defend everyone’s right to make a decision on union membership without pressure from anyone and are committed to making sure that everyone has access to the facts.”

The Game Workers Alliance Union, formed by the Raven QA staff, responded in a series of Tweets.

“We, the supermajority of workers at Raven QA, are proud to be confidently filing our petition with the NLRB for our union election. We are deeply disappointed that Raven Software and Activision Blizzard refused to uplift workers’ rights by choosing to not voluntarily recognize our union in spite of supermajority support. This was an opportunity for Activision Blizzard to show a real commitment to setting new and improved standards for workers. Instead, Activision Blizzard has chosen to make a rushed restructuring announcement to try to hinder our right to organize. Once again, when management is given a choice, they always seem to take the low road. However, we are proud to file with the NLRB as we enjoy supermajority support for our union and know that together, we will gain the formal legal recognition we have earned.”

Author

Written by Jake Valentine

I am the Editor-In-Chief of BossLevelGamer. I'm also a lover of video games, food, and beer.

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