Activision Blizzard subsidiary Raven Software will see the results of one of the video game industry’s most significant union votes Monday afternoon.
If the workers based in the company’s quality assurance department vote to unionize.
They will form the first union at a blockbuster video game company in the United States.
A group of about 30 quality assurance testers at Raven Software.
Which makes Call of Duty titles in Madison, Wis., has mailed in ballots to vote in the election.
The Milwaukee office of the National Labor Relations Board.
(NLRB) will count all the ballots via video conference Monday afternoon.
“Finally being able to vote yes made all of the hard work.
We’ve put in over these past five months worth it,” said a Raven.
Quality assurance tester earlier this month, speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.
“The fact that Activision tried so hard to stop our union every step of the way makes it clear that a union is necessary at this company.”
The unionization push at Raven began after 12 quality assurance (QA) contractors were let go in December 2021.
In late January, Raven testers filed a petition with the NLRB for a union election after parent company.
Activision Blizzard missed a deadline set by the group to voluntarily recognize the nascent union, named the Game Workers Alliance.
Days after the petition was filed.
Raven management moved quality assurance testers.
To different departments across the studio.
Saying the company was moving toward an “embedded tester model.”
Activision Blizzard contested the filing, arguing that any union at Raven.
Would have to encompass all of the studio’s approximately 230 employees.
The embedded testing model proved that QA was integrated with other teams.
Labor lawyers The Post consulted said that asking for a larger eligible.
Voting group was a strategy aimed at diluting union support.
The NLRB’s decision in late April rejected that argument.
Finding that the set of quality assurance testers was an appropriate bargaining unit.
“We respect and believe in the right of all employees to decide whether or not to support or vote for a union,”.
Activision Blizzard spokeswoman Jessica Taylor said in a statement to The Post Monday.
“We believe that an important decision that will impact the entire Raven Software.
Studio of roughly 350 employees should not be made by fewer than 10% of Raven employees.”
The unionization push and the response from management attracted lawmakers’ attention. In February, Sen.
Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) called on Activision CEO Bobby Kotick to stop any union-busting efforts.
The National Labor Relations Board mailed out ballots to quality assurance testers.
Who were with the company during the pay period ending April 16.
While the number of Raven quality assurance testers has held steady at around 30 employees.
The composition of the team has changed over the course of the five-month unionization effort.
Activision hired nine testers who are now eligible to vote.
This led to some scrambling on the potential union’s part to recruit the new hires, Raven workers told The Post.
Management at Raven had been sending employees messages.
And holding meetings about the upcoming election, according to current Raven Software employees.
At an April 26 town hall, leadership at Raven suggested unionization might impede game development and affect promotions and benefits.
They sent an email to employees the next day with a graphic attached that read, “Please vote no.”
Several Raven employees told The Post they found management’s.
Anti-union messaging to be disappointing and ineffective, as they voted “yes.”
“I don’t think throughout any of this I’ve really had time to process how I felt,” the QA tester said.
“Mailed my ballot, and then got right back to work.
I think it will probably all hit me like a ton of bricks when this is finally over.”
