Last week we had reported the unfortunate news that Blizzard would be shutting down an office in Versailles, France, displacing 285 employees who handled a variety of tasks for EU players including customer service, localization, and marketing duties among other things. Now, a letter shared by YouTube channel Taliesin & Evitel calls for employees of the office to go on strike against Activision-Blizzard to save the location and their jobs.
The letterhead comes from the CGT, SPECIS-UNSA, and CFC-CGC elected unions, which calls into question Acti-Blizz’s timing for the layoffs. “In 15 years, many of us left their homes from across Europe and beyond to join the company. Some of us have as much as 30 years of seniority and will face great difficulties finding a new job due to very little training and anticipation from the company” reads the letter. “In these times of Covid crisis, it is inconceivable to send 285 people on an unemployed market in turmoil.”
As a result, the unions are calling on employees of the branch office to go on strike today, October 14th, to demand the cancellation of the office’s closure, further development of activities in Europe, and more investments in efficient prevention of psycho-social risks.
For their part, members of the Taliesin and Evitel channel will not be streaming or playing World of Warcraft today as a show of solidarity for the Versailles employees. “I know this is largely symbolic, but sometimes symbolic gestures matter. Support matters, and solidarity matters,” reads one of the tweets. “And where I come from, you never cross a picket line.”
Blizz want to close their Versailles office and put lots of brilliant people out of work.
Their union is recommending they strike tomorrow.
It is prepatch day, this hurts but I have never broken a picket line and I never will.
So I will not be playing or streaming WoW tomorrow pic.twitter.com/2xv9bojyOJ
— Taliesin & Evitel (@TaliesinEvitel) October 13, 2020
Et pour les gens qui ont un peu de mal à comprendre ce qu'il se passe à Versailles pour Blizzard FR/EU, voici un refresh : pic.twitter.com/DzfmGjfAq6
— Zoltan (@ZoltanTV) October 13, 2020
