Blizzard Again Attempts To Throw A Wrench In Its QA Workers’ Unionization Efforts

Blizzard Albany may have gotten the green light to form a union but its parent company apparently isn’t above conjuring up all sorts of hurdles to delay the studio’s QA workers from unionizing. Blizzard Entertainment (the parent company) has filed a request for review with the National Labor Relations Board which effectively impounds all union election ballots until the review can be completed.

In the filing, Blizzard offered the same arguments that it used earlier this year to prevent Raven Software QA workers from unionizing. According to the company, the QA workers from its Albany studio shouldn’t be able to steer the decision of the entire studio and all 100 of its employees and that everyone should be entitled to vote on the unionization.

“Activision wants what’s best for the entire team, including a transparent and democratic process for all employees,” a Blizzard spokersperson said. “We are concerned that 18 individuals will have the voting power to determine the fate of more than 100 workers and that’s why we advocate for all workers to have a vote.”

This argument has failed to convince the National Labor Relations board back then and it very likely won’t stick right now since the formation of a QA union will only affect the QA department and other departments will still be free to organize their own unions.

Three-year Albany QA tester Amanda Laven asserts this fact and maintains that the QA department isn’t making decisions for any of the other departments in the studio nor have they bargained for the other departments’ wages or benefits. The veteran QA tester claims that the request for a review is just Blizzard’s way of delaying the election until the Microsoft buyout pushes through.

Whether the labor board will scrap the request still remains to be seen. In any case, the Blizzard Albany union election is expected to be completed by the end of this week.

Despite ABK's attempt to delay the vote, workers are unfazed. “It’s really important for people to band together, take back their power & have a say in their workplace... and for too long, that has been in the hands of very few." @WeAreGWAAlbany https://t.co/fbX8LXUQ9A

— CODE-CWA (@CODE_CWA) November 16, 2022