Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard, attends the Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference on July 8, 2022, in Sun Valley, Idaho.
Kevin Dietsch | Getty Images News | Getty Images
A group of software testers at Activision Blizzard have formed the company’s second union, months before Microsoft is expected to close its nearly $69 billion acquisition of the video game publisher.
Employees at the company’s Blizzard Entertainment division in Albany, New York, are working with the Communications Workers of America to assemble their own group in the Game Workers Alliance, which was formed by staffers elsewhere at Activision.
In a series of tweets under the name GWA Albany, the group said it’s seeking competitive compensation with transparency, better benefits, clearer processes for communication about workplace issues and improved work-life balance. The unit consists of 20 people, according to CWA.
While labor movements have historically been rare in the technology industry, where pay and benefits tend to be stronger than other parts of the economy, they’ve become more familiar recently. Small groups of workers at Alphabet and Apple have taken steps to organize, and in April Amazon workers on New York’s Staten Island became the first group to vote in favor of unionizing at one of the company’s U.S. facilities.
At Activision, the labor demands come with greater heft after instances of alleged sexual misconduct at the company that CEO Bobby Kotick reportedly knew of for years...
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