More Of Blizzard’s Employees Are Looking To Unionize In Albany, What Used To Be Vicarious Visions

In a move that probably shouldn’t be surprising to anyone, more Activision Blizzard staff are pushing to unionize. Staff at Blizzard Albany announced plans to unionize under the name Game Worker Alliance Albany on the new organization’s Twitter account earlier today. Prior to this, they submitted a request to Activision Blizzard to voluntarily recognize the union. According to the Washington Post, the developer has responded to the request, but it was a fairly vague public statement about the company’s relationship with its employees delivered via a spokesperson.

This news does follow pretty closely to Raven QA testers officially unionizing – which will likely set the tone for future instances of other Blizzard staff trying to do the same. Blizzard did fight the organization of the union but ultimately failed. Whether or not they decide this is a sign of the times and assume any further attempts to prevent unionization remains to be seen – and we’ll be seeing here.

As for GWA Albany, they make specific points about QA being undervalued in the video game industry and wanting to empower themselves while securing fair compensation and pay transparency as well as the ability to address other issues.

We at Blizzard Albany pride ourselves on our craft and our culture. With a union, we will finally
have a seat at the table for negotiating our futures. We ask that @ATVI_AB voluntarily recognize
our union & respect our right to organize without retaliation or interference. 5/5

— GWA Albany (@WeAreGWAAlbany) July 19, 2022

Note: Activision Blizzard is still under investigation by the state of California for serious harassment charges. CEO Bobby Kotick is alleged to have known about such actions within his company – and performed some himself – and shielded the perpetrators from consequences.