After an initial call for the entire studio to unionize last month, followed by reports that some workers felt pressured to sign union cards, Blizzard-owned Proletariat withdrew its request for an anonymous vote for the unionization.
Previous union organizing successes through the Communication Workers of America have taken place at Raven Software and Blizzard Albany, though both were union organizing votes by quality assurance workers only. When Proletariat declared its intention to unionize under the umbrella of the Communication Workers of America, as Raven and Blizzard Albany had done, it was for the entire studio.
The initial announcement indicated that a supermajority of workers had already agreed to unionize, pending either formal recognition from Activision Blizzard or a unionization vote by the National Labor Relations Board.
However, today the Communication Workers of America withdrew the request (via GamesIndustry.biz) for a unionization vote, with a few words for Proletariat CEO Seth Sivak. “Like many founders, he took workers’ concerns as a personal attack and organized a series of meetings that demoralized and disempowered the group, making a free and fair election impossible,” reads their statement, which also blames Activision Blizzard. They also cite the recently created ZeniMax union under the aegis of Microsoft, which officially recognized the bargaining unit.
More recently, there have been reports of discord among workers, with a Blizzard spokesperson sending a comment indicating that some workers felt pressured into declaring themselves open to unionization. Since there was no official acknowledgment of an organizing effort, the next step was to petition the NLRB for a vote, which Proletariat had decided to hold anonymously, saying: “Besides being the fairest option, it also allows employees to get all the information and different points of view.”
Later, the Proletarian Workers Alliance Twitter account issued its own statement on these developments, adding an optimistic note: “There continue to be ongoing and healthy conversations among the proposed bargaining unit and the workers are looking forward to working together!”
The previous tweets were the statements of our Organizing Committee, and not representative of all Proletariat workers. There are always healthy and ongoing conversations among the proposed bargaining unit and the workers look forward to working together! https://t.co/qN2JQKIs2t
– Proletariat Workers Alliance (CWA) (@WeArePWA_CWA) 17 janvier 2023
We will contact Blizzard for comment and will keep this information updated.