The unionization efforts at Activision Blizzard has hit another impasse as the company asked the National Labor Relations Board to postpone the upcoming vote tabulation scheduled for November 18.
Activision Blizzard filed a motion to impound ballots with the NLRB and the votes tally be postponed as part of an earlier request to revisit a ruling that qualified the Blizzard Albany QA team as its own bargaining unit.
The argument is that publicizing the votes could affect a vote if it’s later decided that the unionization vote be held studio-wide and not just within the QA testing team.
In a statement to IGN, Activision Blizzard says, “We deeply respect our employees’ right to choose whether to be represented by a union and to make an informed decision for themselves in a process where every voice is heard. Given the significant impact this decision could have for everyone on the Albany-based Diablo team and the tight integration of our operations there, we believe strongly that each of the 107 eligible employees deserve to have their votes counted, not just the 18 quality assurance testers who are important employees but make up a small fraction of the team.”
The CWA countered with their own statement saying, “Sadly, it’s no surprise that a company that has repeatedly tried to silence its employees, including by hiding reports of sexual violence, would want to muzzle workers’ voices once again by trying to stop them from voting in a union election.” The CWA adds that “Instead of staying neutral, Activision’s management continues to present the same failing arguments in a desperate attempt to interfere with workers’ legal rights to make their own decisions about forming a union and negotiating a collective bargaining agreement.”
This is the latest flashpoint in the ongoing effort to unionize Activision Blizzard, one of the most public unionization efforts in the video game industry. The effort has been ongoing since news of the sexual harassment scandal within Activision Blizzard broke out.
The effort has included a successful unionization vote at the Raven QA team, which formed a union on a 19 to 3 vote tally.
Matt T.M. Kim is IGN's News Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.
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