Activision-Blizzard’s workers are continuing to mobilize: Following the mass-layoffs at Activision’s RavenQA over the weekend, Raven workers staged a walkout yesterday, and now they’re doing it again – joined this time by a walkout by workers at other Activision-Blizzard units, including Blizzard itself.
Today workers from Raven QA are walking out for the second day in a row. They are joined by workers from QATX, QAMN, and Blizzard QA. These workers are standing in solidarity with the statement Raven QA put forward yesterday. They are using the social media hashtag #WeAreRaven
— ABetterABK 💙 ABK Workers Alliance (@ABetterABK) December 7, 2021
Meanwhile, Game Workers Unite Australia has been an activist group working in Australia for some time now, serving to empower and support workers who seek to join a union. However, it’s changing roles next year to serve as an industry-wide union for the video game industry, rebranding as Game Workers Australia to offer a place for every employee a chance to unionize and organize accordingly. The current plan is for the union to kick off operations in March 2022, though there is some uncertainty built into that date.
GWUA’s official release states that this will enable the organization to help organize collective action for the people it represents to deal with discrimination, underpayment, unfair working conditions, and/or lobbying for proper agreements as necessary. It’s a pretty big step for the organization and another move in the ongoing unionization debate across the overall industry. Whether or not an industry-wide union will has as much pull as one focused at a specific development studio remains to be seen, but it’s still forward movement.
