Above October 18, after the NLRB ruled that Blizzard Albany QA employees would be able to vote in a union election, newly appointed communications director Lulu Cheng Meservey posted a lengthy announcement on Slack in response to the news. . Meservey asserts that a few employees cannot “make decisions for others about the future of the entire Albany-based company. Diablo team” and that “direct dialogue” between management and employees is “the most effective route”.
“We feel that collective bargaining is relatively slow…in long-term contract negotiations, labor law prohibits companies from offering any increase in salary/bonus/benefits,” Meservey said. without a special agreement with the union,” Meservey said. She references a small Bloomberg Law Chart from July with data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, adding that it “reported that non-union employees typically get more pay raises than union-represented groups.”
(Previous BLS studies have suggested that unionized workers tend to earn more overall. A. 2020 report found that non-union workers earn only 81% of what union workers earn. Year 2021The Bureau reported that the earnings of non-union workers were 83 percent of the earnings of union workers.)
In response to Meservey’s comments, the US Media Workers, of which GWA Albany is a part, filed a new unfair labor practice charge in October against Activision Blizzard, this time alleging doing so. discredit the union through company-wide Slack messages, including “communicating to workers that unions are responsible for employers not raising wages, failing to provide opportunities for career advancement and not make other improvements to terms and conditions of employment.”
Bronfenbrenner says the pay gap isn’t the only reason employees unite. She added: “If that is the case, employers can discourage unions from joining by giving a little extra money. “Workers organize to have a say in their working conditions. They want to be treated better. They want to have a say, they want to be respected, they want to be in control.”
Control can be anything from maintaining a reasonable schedule to sick leave and promotion systems. Regardless of the company’s current culture, all it takes is new management to provide them with a healthy workplace. Just look at Twitter, where Elon Musk’s takeover became an instant lesson, full of Mass layoffs, shoot, resignation, brutal overtimeand naked concern about the future of the company. In just a few weeks, Musk has threatened to fire employees for working remotely, eliminate employees who express dissent, and is now asking employees to work “high intensity hours” or quit. .
“Employers can’t change things in a union workplace without first talking to the union,” says Bronfenbrenner. “And that may be the biggest thing unions have to offer: workers having a voice.”
Activision Blizzard employees show no sign of going silent. QA employee Fabby Garza said: “It’s become tradition for employees to respond to management announcements in Slack with ‘damn alliance’ content in the Activision Blizzard font. And, adds Bronfenbrenner, organizing is contagious. Walking leads to strikes, strikes lead to unions. “They show workers what unions can do,” she said.
At Activision Blizzard, it’s proven. In the past six months, the games industry’s efforts to unify a major studio have borne fruit twice—an incredible turnaround for an industry where workers have tried and failed. for many decades.
