Blizzard’s Platform & Technology workers vote to unionize

Another division of Activision Blizzard has voted to unionize under the Communications Workers of America (CWA).

Early today, over 400 staff from the company’s Platform and Technology department – including designers, engineers, QA testers, localization teams, and workers on Battle.net – voted to join several other Blizzard divisions to unionize. Microsoft has reportedly recognized the union.

As reported by GameDeveloper, organizing committee members Daniel Weltz, Alex Kohn, and Timothy Biley decided to unionize following the departure of colleagues because of low pay or redundancies, stating “workplaces will now have to offer certain things in order to remain competitive to workers.”

“Having more unions increase workplace standards across the board,” the group said. “Workplaces will now have to offer certain things in order to remain competitive to workers. The industry itself also tends to view the people who make video games as disposable… we’re hopeful that with more unions in the industry, we can turn that perception around.”

“Our culture is our people, and we can’t afford to lose that,” Weltz said.

Earlier this year, developers working in Blizzard’s story and franchise development (SDF) division also voted to unionize, joining nearly 3,000 workers at Microsoft-owned studios who have organized with the Communications Workers of America (CWA), including unionized workers at Wisconsin-based Raven Software who previously filed a complaint against the studio and its parent companies, Activision and Microsoft, for allegedly refusing to bargain.

Last week, an open letter attributed to “93 employees and ex-employees” of Build A Rocket Boy accused the studio’s leadership of “longstanding disrespect and mistreatment of your staff.” The open letter was accompanied by news that members of the Game Workers branch of the Independent Workers of Great Britain (IWGB) union have commenced legal action over the mishandling of redundancies at the company.