Blizzard Albany’s Diablo QA wins right to unionize as NLRB rejects Activision-Blizzard challenge

October 19, 2022 9:30 AM

It’s a good day for games industry workers as Activision-Blizzard has once again failed to suppress the burgeoning worker unions forming within the company: Last night the National Labor Relations Board ruled that another group of Acti-Blizz QA testers is eligible to form a union.

Readers will recall that this group is the QA team at Blizzard Albany, which was known as Vicarious Visions until its full assimilation with Activision-Blizzard last year; the Albany, New York, studio has been working on the Diablo franchise for the last few years, perhaps most notably the in-development Diablo IV.

As it did with QA workers at Raven Software, Activision-Blizzard had attempted to argue that QA should not be able to organize on its own and that any union should be company-wide, which would inevitably become a clash of classes as well-paid designers are incentivized to outvote the underpaid tech positions that are most in need of protection. The company has maintained that allowing QA to organize means giving a “handful” of employees control over the future of the whole studio, which of course is misleading as QA’s vote impacts only QA and nothing is stopping other units within the studio from organizing themselves (except the company’s now very well–documented and illegal unionbusting efforts).

The NLRB rejected Activision-Blizzard’s argument once again and granted QA workers the authority to organize themselves as a bargaining unit, specifically citing the wide disparity in pay between the groups. The vote will apparently take place in mid-November, which means Activision-Blizzard has a few weeks to use its bullhorn to send company-wide emails like this one that disparages the Raven QA union and discourages union support.

We’ll just end this on a comment from a Blizzard Albany worker who is not a QA tester, as quoted in WAPO: “It’s about time. […] Our QA testers are some of the most talented and skilled people working in our company and they are critically undervalued by corporate. I think that all games workers need a union, but QA is in especially dire need.”

• Workers at Blizzard-owned Proletariat say management refused its union and is ‘forcing’ them to go through NLRB voting

• QA workers at Diablo IV studio unanimously vote to form a union

• National Labor Relations Board denies Activision-Blizzard’s attempt to freeze Albany QA workers’ union vote

• Blizzard once again tries to delay Albany QA workers’ union vote through a request for review

• Raven workers accuse Activision-Blizzard of ‘continued intransigence’ during union negotiations

• Activision-Blizzard continues obstructing QA worker unionization with latest appeal

• Activision-Blizzard’s petition to dismiss discrimination suit was thrown out, company faces fresh unfair labor practice charges

• Blizzard Albany’s Diablo QA wins right to unionize as NLRB rejects Activision-Blizzard challenge

• Labor board determines Activision-Blizzard retaliated against unionizers, Microsoft launches acquisition website

• Blizzard is union-busting again, this time targeting the Diablo IV team

• Microsoft and CWA union enter into ‘labor neutrality’ agreement that will ultimately apply to Activision-Blizzard

• Its legal options exhausted, Activision-Blizzard finally agrees to negotiate with union after half a year of clowning