At stake in the hearing is which Blizzard Albany employees can participate in a union vote. During a virtual hearing via the video conferencing platform Zoom, the company’s lawyers stated that everyone in the Blizzard Albany studio who works on Diablo games should be given a voice. Meanwhile, the workers’ counsel asked for a group of 20 quality assurance testers to form the negotiating unit. Blizzard Albany testers try to form a union to negotiate better working conditions and higher wages.
“I think it’s very shortsighted,” said a current Blizzard Albany quality assurance tester, speaking on a condition of anonymity, citing a document lawyers showed about employees’ salaries and hourly wages. “[It’s] clear that QA is a valid unit. [Activision Blizzard] introduced the pay bands, which indicate that we are by far the lowest paid members of the studio.”
Quality assurance testers at Blizzard Albany are paid between $33,000 and $53,000 annually, according to a document shared by the QA testers’ attorneys at this week’s hearing. The group of 20 quality assurance testers at the studio in Albany, NY asked for union recognition in July, but management did not voluntarily recognize them.
“The instinct to delay union activity is always there on the part of employers,” said Wilma Liebman, former chairman of the National Labor Relations Board under former President Barack Obama. “The reasons for wanting a postponement can be many, including not only the obvious – delay which may be unavoidable – but also possible transaction reasons. [with Microsoft.]”
Microsoft is buying Activision Blizzard for nearly $69 billion in a cash deal, pending regulatory approval. The Xbox and Windows maker said earlier in June that it would respect Activision Blizzard employees’ rights to join a union.
Activision Blizzard wants to increase the number of votes eligible for a union election in Blizzard Albany, arguing that additional — but not all — employees should be included in the studio.
“We believe that all our employees should have the right to choose whether or not to join a union in a fair and confidential vote,” said Activision Blizzard spokesman Rich George. “Given our tightly integrated Albany business, we believe that no employee should be left out and that creativity, inspiration and the free exchange of ideas work best when all non-supervisory employees in Albany working on Diablo are allowed to participate in the vote, not just 20 union-identified assurance testers.”
Increasing the voting pool could weaken the voting rights of the 20 QA testers, labor lawyers say, potentially causing the union vote to fail.
Blizzard Albany is the second Activision Blizzard studio to attempt to unionize the company, which is facing multiple sexual harassment investigations. Known for its work on franchises including Guitar Hero and Crash Bandicoot under its former name Vicarious Visions, the studio officially merged with Activision Blizzard in April to become Blizzard Albany. The studio’s quality assurance department there got directions for the organizing campaign from Raven Software, another Activision-owned studio in Madison, Wisconsin, where QA testers won their bid to form a union on May 28. They are currently negotiating a contract.
While management counsel has reconsidered many of the arguments it used against Raven Software’s quality assurance testers, there is one notable difference: As part of an opening address, Reed Smith attorneys representing Activision Blizzard played a “Diablo IV” trailer. to explain what the company does. When the video started, a voiceover stated that the game was not for the faint of heart and was both gory and creepy.
“How are we going to include this in the report?” asked Ruth Basantes, the National Labor Relations Board hearing officer who oversees Monday’s meeting. Reed Smith attorney James Polk responded by spelling the YouTube link for the court reporter with a series of letters and symbols.
The upcoming dark fantasy action role-playing game, in which players fight against various hellspawn, is set to release sometime next year. During this week’s hearing, Activision Blizzard attorneys provided internal conversations, spreadsheets, and other notes that shared insights on what gamers can expect in “Diablo IV.” A document described gamers’ feedback on “Diablo IV,” including one person who said the game was hard, but not in a fun way, because it was hard to get gear from your own dead body after dying.
“It’s downright ironic that if an employee wants to update his portfolio or do something that could help him find a better job elsewhere, he has to wait for the game to be released,” said a current Blizzard Albany employee, who also spoke. on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. “But when the company wants to argue against what the majority of workers in a particular unit have stated is in their best interest and what they want, it’s fine for them to just share things.”
A list of quality assurance testers working on “Diablo IV” was also published during the hearing, as well as the cover letter, LinkedIn and social media account of a quality assurance tester. While quality assurance testers are usually recognized in a game’s credits, along with thousands of others who helped create the game, the selection of the testers and the public disclosure of the QA tester’s information made some employees engaged in online harassment, furious.
“Considering how toxic a lot of fandoms and gamers can be, it’s pretty shocking to see [everyone’s names] published when it really didn’t have to be,” said the employee. “This didn’t have to be a fight that went to the NLRB. [Management] could have just chosen to recognize the unit.”
During the hearing, Activision Blizzard’s attorneys argued that while employees who work on Diablo games at Blizzard Albany are allowed to vote in union elections, those in the studio who work on “World of Warcraft” or “Overwatch” should not. It’s unclear why the attorneys took a different approach than they did in February, when they argued that all of Raven Software should vote on a union — not just their quality assurance testers. A majority vote (50 percent plus one) is required to form a union.
George, the spokesperson for Activision Blizzard, said in a statement that “some employees who work at Albany are not included in our proposal because they are either working on non-Diablo projects or are not eligible (for example, they can manage people). ” The Post specifically asked why employees of other games were not allowed to participate in the Blizzard Albany union vote, but the company had not replied at the time of publication Friday.
Employees said the “Diablo IV” team at Blizzard Albany has been integrated into the Irvine, California team also working on the title, while those working on other games at Blizzard Albany are collaborating more regularly with other teams.
“Diablo IV” is a title planned for later next year, and will take place after the events of “Diablo III” when demons and angels kill millions. The “Diablo IV” documents were shared by lawyers, while online players trying the game in beta testing leaked images elsewhere.
On Monday, Activision Blizzard employees staged a protest at the virtual hearing, with several dozen employees attending the Zoom hearing with their photos reading “ABK Stop Union Busting,” or changing their display name to “stop Union Busting,” which Activision means. Blizzard’s annoyed. lawyers. Polk, Reed Smith’s attorney, objected to the protesters, calling them potentially “disruptive” and asking the NLRB to remove those images and let people change their names. In response, council hearing officer Basantes said the virtual hearing was akin to a face-to-face hearing, where anyone could attend and those present would not know the names of others. Basantes then allowed protesters to rename themselves “Guest,” allowing more than one Activision Blizzard employee to rejoin the meeting without worrying about their employer writing down their real names.
On Thursday, Basantes looked back on the protest incident and said: “As I remember, no one was disturbing. So there was no need to kick anyone out of the meeting.” She made an analogy that if people had worn shirts with slogans at an in-person hearing, they wouldn’t be asked to give their real names or change their shirts.
NLRB press secretary Kayla Blado said she expects a decision in the coming weeks. Activision Blizzard must submit its documents by August 25 before the Hearing Officer can make a decision.
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