Microsoft and Activision Blizzard accused of ‘wicked faith bargaining’ by Raven Software union workers

Unionized workers at Raven Software obtain filed a Nationwide Labor Family members Board (NLRB) complaint in opposition to parent companies Activision Blizzard and Microsoft.

Consistent with Game File, the complaint accuses each and each of “bad faith bargaining” and “concerted activities,” the latter of which would perhaps embody “retaliation, discharge, [and] discipline.”

The complaint has been filed as unionized Raven staffers strive to strike a collective bargaining agreement with their employer. It is unclear what provisions the union is hoping to true with any likely new contract, nevertheless it appears to be like the preliminary optimism that adopted the studio’s unionization push has now dissipated.

“After Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, our members were optimistic that they would progress quickly to a first contract at Raven Software,” mentioned Communications Workers of The USA president Claude Cummings Jr., in an announcement despatched to Game File. “Unfortunately, that has not happened. We encourage Microsoft to address the concerns raised in the Unfair Labor Practice charge and make reaching a fair agreement a priority.”

Unionized Raven workers name out Microsoft

The CWA has assisted a change of sport industry unions with their group efforts, including quite loads of cohorts within Activision Blizzard and Microsoft. The CWA’s latest victory came when over 500 staff at Blizzard Leisure established a wall-to-wall union on the Microsoft-owned studio.

Ahead of that, it oversaw the formation of unions encompassing practically 250 Bethesda Game Studios workers and roughly 600 Activision Blizzard QA workers.

These efforts obtain been helped alongside by the labor neutrality agreement Microsoft signed with the CWA in 2022, which in the begin lined Activision Blizzard staff but has since been prolonged to ZeniMax workers. That agreement enables workers to “freely and fairly make a choice about union representation.”

Responding to the NLRB complaint, Microsoft mentioned it remains “committed to negotiating in good faith.” Game File, alternatively, reports that Raven workers obtain sat by means of a pair of bargaining classes with administration since the union became once fashioned in 2022, but obtain yet to ranking meaningful progress.

Game Developer has reached out to the CWA and Microsoft for extra data.

Referring to the Author