A group of quality assurance workers at Call of Duty: Warzone developer Raven Software has expressed its intent to unionize, they announced today.
The group is called the Game Workers Alliance and is asking its parent company, Activision Blizzard, to “voluntarily recognize the union” that has the support of the “supermajority” of Raven’s QA workers, according to a report by Polygon.
“Today, I am proud to join with a supermajority of my fellow workers to build our union, Game Workers Alliance (GWA),” Raven Software QA tester Becka Aigner said in a release. “In the video game industry, specifically Raven QA, people are passionate about their jobs and the content they are creating. We want to make sure that the passion from these workers is accurately reflected in our workplace and the content we make. Our union is how our collective voices can be heard by leadership.”
A number of Raven’s QA workers have been on strike since the beginning of December to push for changes in work conditions after Activision laid off numerous people within the department. The group posted a thread on Twitter outlining its principles, which include solidarity, sustainability, transparency, equity, and diversity.
“We ask that Activision Blizzard management respect Raven QA workers by voluntarily recognizing CWA’s representation without hesitation,” Communications Workers of America secretary-treasurer Sara Steffens said in a statement. “A collective bargaining agreement will give Raven QA employees a voice at work, improving the games they produce and making the company stronger. Voluntary recognition is the rational way forward.”
To call the past few months at Activision Blizzard tumultuous would be an understatement. After numerous harassment lawsuits against the company for its working conditions and now its sale to Microsoft for nearly $70 billion, there’s quite a bit of turnover within.
Warzone, meanwhile, is suffering through a rough period of bugs and glitches that would normally fall on QA teams to find and fix, along with its ongoing cheater problem.
“We aim to work together with leadership to create a healthy and prosperous work environment for all people, to develop successful and sustainable products, and to support the enjoyment of our players,” the group said.
