The web of events and controversies surrounding Activision Blizzard are enormous. The state treasurers of the United States have focused on their responsibility with the staff, Geoff Keighley has withdrawn the company from The Game Awards 2021 and yesterday an employee publicly recounted the sexual harassment suffered.
In many of the claims made by the workers we find the ABK Workers Alliance, a multi-member association of the company. Now, in a statement, this group has decided to go on strike, with the Raven Software employees’ strike as the last straw.
In June 2020, an article was published highlighting the abuse, harassment, and discrimination that occurred within the Activision-Blizzard offices. Since then, Activision-Blizzard leaders have continually abused, repressed unions, and remained apathetic to the wishes of workers.
In the months since then, we have seen CEO Bobby Kotick and the Board of Directors protect abusers and only hold perpetrators accountable after events came to light by outside means. We’ve seen Activision hire the WilmerHale law firm, known for breaking unions, to disrupt and impede the improvement efforts of Activision-Blizzard workers. We’ve seen Raven Software workers lured in by the promise of a promotion, only to be laid off shortly after relocation, in addition to the already underrated and highly underpaid working conditions of ABK workers across the company. These and many other events have caused an alliance of Activision-Blizzard employees to initiate a work stoppage until demands are met and worker representation finally has a place within the company.
After all, the Board of Directors still claims to have confidence in Kotick’s unproductive and inappropriate leadership. The Board of Directors includes: Reveta Bowers, Robert Corti, Hendrik Hartong III, Brian Kelly, Bobby Kotick, Barry Meyer, Robert Morgado, Peter Nolan, Dawn Ostroff, Casey Wasserman.
They report from The Washington Post that the workers, in collaboration with the CWA, are seeking support in the form of signatures for a union authorization. If successful, a vote would be held in the company for the formation of a union, which would be reinforced by another announcement.
Along with this appeal, there has been a movement that in the long run can be very significant. The ABK has opened a donations fund with the aim of receiving financial aid to continue their fight. The goal set is to reach a million dollars (right now, 31,144 dollars have been collected) and the aim is to cover the money lost by workers who go to this strike and future ones.
This protest is led by Jessica Gonzalez, the main organizer of two of the three strikes previous reports and that he resigned from his post last month. Activision Blizzard’s board of directors has ensured that it will cover the usual salary for the strike carried out between Monday and Wednesday of this week. Beyond those dates, they will not be paid properly.