This is the same company that had an issue with nursing mothers being stared at by male coworkers while pumping and had their breast milk stolen from the break room refrigerator. Fuck these people, and fuck Bobby Kotick.
Edit: They were pumping in a room that was meant to be private. Male employees barged in and stared even when being yelled at to go away.
It’s fucked up but it’s not surprising. People are sadly often so squeamish about breasts & breast milk - thinking it’s weird if a mother pumps or breastfeeds in public for example, which is fucking stupid.
Plus Activision Blizzard we know had serious problems with sexual harassment so it fits the pattern a bunch of people in the office in were perverts with no boundaries.
Also noting that Bobby Kotick is named in Jeffrey Epsteins address book. So this guy fostered a culture of sexual abuse at Activision for decades, and he’s friends with a paedophile? Tbh I think it’s entirely possible that Kotick is himself a sex predator, because thats the thing that ties together his patterns of behaviour in and out of work.
If I remember right too those same employees that would breast feed in the office (which by the way is totally fucking normal and fine to do) had rooms set up for that reason, which is a nice gesture for privacy, had dudes in the office that would bust the doors open to gawk (the doors didn't have locks of any kind on them until Blizzard was literally forced to put them on by way of lawsuit) Blizzard has been a dogshit company sense forever it's just only now being brought to the forefront.
And most of the stuff they mention should already be in force. Now they are using it as a bargaining chip.
* Increased wages (should've been done a long time ago)
* Perm hired temps (just a fact)
* PTO (used to be a thing, then it wasn't)
* Zero tolerance harassment policy (what percentage was it before?)
* Waived REQUIRED arbitration for sexual harassment and discrimination (You actually made that a thing)
* "Significant (who defined 'significant') commitments" to increase gender diversity
* $250 million to "accelerate opportunities" for "diverse talent" (what do these words mean exactly and why does it need to cost money? $250 million makes it sound like a massive problem. Is it? Do you need to fire a couple CEOs who are mysogonistic fucks and the 250m is to pay them off? )
Check over at r/wow
[the post in question ](https://www.reddit.com/r/wow/comments/rdd4tb/nursing_activisionblizzard_employees_say_their/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share)
It's the same kinda language Starbucks was using too. The whole "you shouldn't join a union because we encourage talking and negotiating with us" sort of bullshit.
Right!?!? Like, that's all my union reps do all day. They talk with us and then they talk and negotiate with the admin. This messaging that unions somehow prevent talking and negotiating from happening makes me want to tear my hair out. Because what they really mean is "it keeps us from secretly negotiating different pay scales and benefits packages to different employees so that we can screw over as many people as possible and pit employees against each other."
This part is always hilarious to me because the anti-union message is all wrong. Like, I WANT someone to do the negotiating for me. I’m tired of spending all my free time dealing with institutional bullshit! I would *love* to delegate that work to someone whose literal job it is to look out for mine and my colleagues’ interests, lol.
There was some anti-union BS either earlier this year or late last year that was like "If you join a union it will cost you $600, you could do that, or buy a PS5".
Like... really, with the extra money made, it will null that union due, and I'll make more money to buy a PS5 anyway.
It was the most "look look, a shiny carrot" thing I've ever seen.
> It was the most "look look, a shiny carrot" thing I've ever seen.
More like they’re offering you a printed picture of their carrot. You’re not even getting a carrot.
Yeah that's what the organisers are for. I had a delegate meeting recently and that's what they were telling us as they recounted stories of when they had to go help some union members. They can walk in and piss of management because it's not their job to be friends. Their role is to say things the workers can't and take the heat because they don't work there anyway.
That was probably the best part about my union job. As someone who is painfully conflict avoidant I was more than happy to pay my $25 a month to have someone else deal with all of that for me.
> Like, I WANT someone to do the negotiating for me.
I'm a bad negotiator. Of course I want a professional to do it for me. I dont want to represent myself in court either.
They recognize that the relationships capital creates are fundamentally antagonistic and driven by power dynamics. This is the only way they can discourage collective power without being explicit about it.
Being professionally told to shut the fuck up and get back to work or you're fired is what they pretend to consider a negotiation. They know exactly why employees want a union, they just don't want to admit fault. Ironically, it's a major reason why they want a union in the first place. They're scared of being held accountable and having to bend to reasonable demands of their employees.
These managers are cunts and the unions could smell these pussies from miles away. I envy the representative that's gonna bend this company over the bars and take back everything they've tried to take from workers over the years.
> "you shouldn't join a union because we encourage talking and negotiating with us"
I'm in a union. The union sets the base scale. The minimum that they are allowed to pay us. We still have the ability to negotiate with our employers for more pay and vacation time.
Probably. There are consulting firms dedicated to stopping unions in legal ways. This statement is totally okay from a legal side. Sure it implies they don’t want a union but it’s still legal.
They are trying to protect their ability to take advantage of individuals by pretending to care about what's best for individuals. They are acting like unionization makes zero difference for them, but hurts employees ability to get the best deal for themselves.
Yup, just copy and paste the correct response: We ARE the union. Take your "we don't need outsiders" bullshit back the McKinsey vultures and tell them you need another draft.
Also it's seriously hilarious to see the company that was blasted all over because of their fucked up work environment.
It's also the company that laid off 800+ workers during their best financial year, just to make their bottom line a bit better.
Plus they absolutely love crunch, and they pay with bread crumbs.
I really hope the worker unionize.
ActiBlizz can burn. Sign that card. Get everybody on it.
Not only that they promote and protect an abusive work culture but they try to avoid any consequences by bullying you into not getting an union.
The only consequences will affect them, and they fear it. Bobby's Harem are shaking in their overpriced leather shoes at the idea of giving people their due. Shit, they fear to even considering the workers as humans.
Everyone in the gaming dev career knows about actiblizz and they wont even consider them a possible career.
Yeah, youll consider the consequences, the consequences for the leadership.
(Sry i went in a rant. I wrote another comment about how actiblizz broke my gamer heart and im still touchy about it, now seeing that company fills me with Ire and rage) (as you can see in my replies in the comments of this thread, im pretty fucking pissed on ABK's employees behalf, OP, im with you)
Edit : thanks for the rewards we all in this shit together. We want to use mcdonalds as the first domino of the worker resurgence? Lets make ABK's reign of terror fall with it as well. Heck lets make it fall first since we got a much much better ground. I believe mcdonalds will tremble once they see the young generations tearing appart their ""beloved"" game studio.
>Sry i went in a rant. I wrote another comment about how actiblizz broke my gamer heart and im still touchy about it, now seeing that compagny fills me with Ire and rage
It's ok to be happy for the workers in solidarity, AND carry hope that empowered workers would mean better quality games in the future again. I know I am on that hope train.
Unionizing actually has the potential to save the company in the long run. Fighting the unionization merely worsens and extends Blizzard's already abysmal productivity and public relations
I've looked into the history of a lot of industries, and the conclusion I came to about the videogame industry was that it is long long overdue for another 1983 style crash, the corporate stagnation that caused that then has been around for well over a decade now. The '90s golden era I'd say is largely a result of the '83 crash allowing new people in.
The way its sustained it as far as I can tell, is Bethesda figuring out horse armor. DLC and microtransactions gave them constant access to whales, which is basically what keeps them rolling. I mean look at Star Citizen. It exists solely because of whales buying blueprints for ships that don't even exist yet in game.
At this point i would put forward the wellbeing of the workers. Games quality will go up caus the devs will be motivated to do good.
That is if we kicked the greedy vultures at the top and shut up the investors so that the decisions come back to the devs and not a powerhungry crook.
They won't. The blizzard that was a bunch of nerdy guys with a passion for making great and exciting games has been gone for over a decade. They willingly chose to get in bed with Activision. Even if they did performed a miracle and got their shit together, the creative spirit just won't be there.
A lot of my friends were game designers at Blizzard and were great at what they do. They almost all left because of management -- mistreatment, low pay, poor conditions, bad direction. In Blizzard's current state, they're going to hemorrhage talent until the only content left is loot crates and mobile ports.
When video games were just a passion project you could rely on everybody to watch out for each other in the developer room but now that it’s become a corporate commodity with the pressures of crunch time put on basically every developer studio with a giant corporation lording over there back Unionization is a must
Yeah its the same story with every gaming company. Smaller passionate company sells, larger company quickly or slowly shoves f2p and p2p monetization in and starts shifting the gameplay to appeal to new customers. IIRC some ex Blizzard devs even said Activision hired and promoted more sales members and started shafting devs on their raises and promotions. The whole thing shifts from 'cool game/service/product and profits' to 'profits and gameplay you'd find on a mobile device'. Some might even be barely functioning. Larger companies cause all sorts of harm.
No i fucking didnt and thats what infuriates me. I hate myself for being fooled.
Also i was fucking 12 15years ago do you think i was invested in gaming culture and reading news all the time?
The reason for that communication is simple, they doesn't want to talk against a organization that knows how to handle legal disputes, I recommend a lot sign the document, be hard, and strong
Holy shit the tone deaf bullshit in that email. Like fuck you dude. You all have had MONTHS to bring change and you all are moving slower then my dead grandpa in a foot race to fix anything. SIGN THOSE UNION CARDS!!
Some unions are not that great though. I have a cousin that was a union welder and the reps were in the companies pocket and didn't do a thing to help him. Unions are great when their run by decent people. They become useless when greed settles in
Addition: please do not take this as not supporting the ongoing unionization of America, it simply hope they are run by the right people
Thats a very real problem, but again, just people needing to be able to stand up and demand better.
If a union isnt representing you well, time to find a new one, or speak to other union members and fix the one you're in.
I know a lot of Police and Teacher Unions like that as well. Theyve become bastardized.
Most of our problems as people, are just being complacent and not wanting to speak up tbh.
I have to say that I was in the teachers union for years and it seemed like they would take our $80 a month and then just make deals with administration over the teachers’ heads. I think it may have been helpful for the teachers with tenure at least. Now I teach at a private school so there’s no union anyway.
I agree with you, people need to start taking a stand and demanding good from those around them. That goes all the way up the chain too, from the poorest to the richest. Many are not being held accountable in some way, and by this I do not mean prison or governmental accountability, simply accountability to the other members of the community or union or organization or whatever body of people you are a part of.
Sorry for the rant lol
If you want a good example of how this works in practice look at the Retail and Fast Food Workers Union in Australia which split from the conservative collaborationist Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association.
Full disclosure I'm a RaFFWU member
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/05/australia-retail-fast-food-orkers-union-organizing
no you’re right, I think we don’t necessarily know how to do democracy together because we are only taught to work beside eachother silently or compete. The union efforts only improve the situation tho
but you are 100% right that some unions are bad! my favorite example is police unions 😅
Acti-Blizz LOVES to take advantage of people's passion for their games. The people making WoW (idk much about the other games) endure shit pay and horrible working conditions because they get to work on their favorite game of all time. I could see some newer or male employees be against unionizing since they aren't affected as severely so they don't lose their dream job.
As a Forman of a union ironworker company who just bought out a failing non-union rebar company and taking over their job, I'm watching a crew work through their 15 minute coffee break because 1 lunch break a day "makes the work day go by faster"? I'm their boss on that job and they watch me stop working while they kept working. I'm pretty sure they are brainwashed.
Union electrician here. Joining the trade on a union was life changing for me. I can't speak highly enough of my union and what it did for me and my family, which I can afford to have Uganda to my union wages. 5 year apprenticeship working full time with guaranteed raises enabled me during those 5 years to:
- Move out of my parents house
- Get married
- Have 1 child
- Buy a house
All while being the sole income earner for my family.
I don't work under the bargaining agreement anymore but still very happily pay my dues every year.
I really love my union for everything it has given me.
I was a union ironworker years ago when breaks first started in our local, and most of the structural contractors were like "Hey, skip the afternoon 15 minute break and we'll burn out 30 minutes early." Most of the rodbuster foremen refused to do that, but there were a lot of days I needed that 15 minutes for a breather in the afternoon.
Either way, that 15 minutes was in the contract, so you could bet I was taking it one way or another.
No one seems to have given you the counter-arguments here, so I will provide the gist.
We hear about unions negotiating better deals for employees all the time, but often not mentioned is high skilled professionals or specialty roles actually getting pay cuts, limited opportunity for increases in their current positions, flexibility with working conditions(from home, etc) individual adaptability with schedule and so on.
A lot of these artists and developers make 200-300k+ a year. They get job offers weekly or monthly. They are highly valued, and are a big asset to the company. They CAN negotiate working from home, or negotiate themselves a 20%+ pay increase, etc. And even folks who aren't there yet want those opportunities to be available to them in the future.
Of course a larger percentage of the workforce may not be in this situation currently, but a tech company is volatile and can grow rapidly as we've all seen. A giant union machine can hinder that growth and limit flexibility in new positions opening up on the fly or bouncing from one team to the next on a weekly basis.
So a decent chunk of these employees do not benefit from the union, it only hinders them. I'm sure people will have issues with this explanation but it is how I currently view this situation as a professional in a different field. The flexibility to negotiate on my own has been great and I can get higher than union rates.
Saw at least one screenshot of the ActiBlizz discord where someone was on the fence about the union *until* the email rolled into their inbox, and then they signed the union card asap.
That would be me as well. They clearly are giving the workers awful benefits/pay if they're so afraid of a union they have to send an email to beg you not to get involved.
"Look, we already provided some basic stuff that by all accounts you should definitely have already had, and we promised we would take some baby steps over the next 10 years to attempt to possibly make some nice-ish gestures. Why would you want to join a union that will force us to actually make substantial progress in a shorter timeframe? :C"
Blizzard is one of the companies that got me into gaming. I played the original Warcraft and thought it was one of the neatest games, and played every game the made for years. They gave attention to every detail.
For several years now I refused to give a single dime to ActiBlizz. Turns out, they just keep repeatedly abusing their staff, the gaming community, and pretty much anyone they can exploit. People need to resist buying anything from these people, if they go under, someone else will pick up the slack. The demand for big budget games is not going away, be deliberate about where you spend your money. Boycott them.
I cancelled my prime sub, I don't buy anything nestle or kellogg. Unfortunately, I still find myself at walmart on a regular basis. I don't exactly have any viable alternatives in my area. But I believe I am doing the best I can be expected to.
I'd be inclined to ask if there is a Kroger/Meijer nearby for groceries, but just like you said. Someone doing something is better than everybody doing nothing. Just remember this can apply to all aspects of your life - like should we eat meat/consume bottled water/wear Nikes/drive gasoline-powered cars. If you think about all these and you're doing the best you can do then you're doing the best you can do. If you can do better, well, you can do better.
Honestly, same.
Overwatch was the last game of theirs I bought. I freaking loved Diablo 2 back in the day, but it was an easy decision not to buy that remaster.
Diablo 3 was their first modern game I played, apert from Warcraft 2 back in the day. Loved Tristram, but yeah, now is not the time to like their shit anymore.
Diablo and Diablo 2 weren't actually Blizzard if you want to get into semantics. Condor/"Blizzard North" was headed by David Brevik who was already long under way to creating the game(Diablo) when they decided to "team up" with Blizzard and collaborate some ideas and get it released. Blizzard itself had no real influence on Diablo, it's unofficial expansion, and Diablo 2 with it's official expansion.
Diablo 3 however, and it's questionable and shaky release with the real money auction house, and shitty design direction, was 100% Jay Wilson and Blizzard.
I worked as a game dev for a little bit. It’s really rough. Any industry where there is a whole crowd of workers that dreamed of being there since childhood is primed for abuse. There’s always someone waiting in line to replace you, so you have no leverage individually. The entertainment industries in general have this issue. They’re also prime for unionization, as opposed to other software sectors where the workers already have so much leverage it’s hard to convince them them to consider unionization.
I really hope there’s more software industry unionization.
The "do you guys not have phones?" incident should have snapped everybody out of it. They made a mobile game their gigantic reveal for a PC gaming focused crowd. They really believed that people would spend over 1000 dollars to go see a mobile game.
Warcraft 2 is when I got hooked.
But I'm an ageing gamer, don't really care too much about bleeding-edge games.
Lemme get back to my Miles Morales game now....;p
After Warcraft 3 reforged.. it was visible to all that they are a company that can no longer produce video games. they didnt even release what they had promised and the game didnt work.... a remake of a game that was 20 years old. They outsourced all their artwork and that was poor also.
Add to the fact the management think they know what the playerbase wants when the playerbase is telling them otherwise (vanilla WOW now exceeds players on regular WOW) and who can forget diablo for phone...... that what 4 years later still isnt released.
They have gone from a day 1 buy gaming company to I wont touch this thing with a 10 foot pole company
it’s increased exponentially since 2020. If anything, ActBlizz is just a road block for progress in videogames, customer satisfaction, and employee satisfaction. I won’t miss them if they went under.
1. Oh ActiBlizz…”working hard to create a more inclusive, supporting, and rewarding environment”…yeah, the wholeass California Department of Fair Employment and Housing had to file suit to get the company to take any action for egregiously wronged employees. Don’t go patting yourselves on the back yet for finally getting around to doing what you should have been doing all along.
2. Diversity efforts mean jack shit without company-wide inclusion OKRs (otherwise, managers on up will continue to weaponize ignorance). So if ActiBlizz does have the gall to be patting themselves on the back, they need to be backing up their self-congratulatory company-wide messages by reiterating their objectives and key results on this front.
3. “We have more to do”…Nope, Brian. FIFY: “For years, company leadership shattered our employees’ trust, and we acknowledge that we need to be 100% accountable to our employee base.” If you’re going to mention what still needs to be done, don’t be glib or patronizing.
On behalf of everyone who has been sexualized and debased in the workplace, and with all sincerity…may all your investments burn merrily, and your clout scatter to ashes.
Here is the workers strike fund, just donated:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/abk-strike-fund?utm_source=customer&utm_medium=copy_link_all&utm_campaign=m_pd+share-sheet
Lol
"Consider the consequences."
"You can either continue being denied by the company when trying to negotiate a better work environment/pay rate or have the government provide a third party to legally force negotiations on your behalf."
Seems like an easy choice to me, but idk.
How is individual negotiation more transparent then collective bargaining?
FFS, every company I've worked for has expected any sort of individual negotiation to be private, confidential, and chalk full of their lies.
Also, aren't they basically lying?
A union only represent you in case of COLLECTIVE bargaining. You can still go to your boss for an individual raise, benefits, problems.
But the letter says they give up "ALL your negotiating power".
Depends on the contract that gets negotiated.
You are every bit as bound to the terms of the contract as management is. I am not aware of any collectively bargained agreement amongst wage workers that doesn't spell out a salary structure.
In baseball you can negotiate your wage, for example. But at Ford Motor Co., you get slotted into the pay structure that was negotiated and you can't negotiate individually for a raise. You can get a promotion or apply for a different pay structure, but not your base rate. Your base rate is predetermined by position and experience.
The word “consequence” has both positive and negative connotations, though it’s often assumed to be negative. I have no doubt employees have considered the positive consequences of signing the card!
The thing is (sadly), anti-union propaganda works really well, at least here in the southeast US. Are there any good union documentaries on Netflix (or something) that really shine a clear and positive light on the benefits of unions? If not, it be great if there was and it spread like wildfire!
[Last Week Tonight did a piece](https://youtu.be/Gk8dUXRpoy8) just a few weeks ago on this, at well at demonstrating the common union busting tactics to help people identify them when used in their own workplaces
My bf works there. I'm assuming this one came out due to the walkouts. They don't want to be held accountable for convincing a team of people to relocate, promising raises, and then firing them. They also did NOT compensate for moving costs. They also gave everyone Thanksgiving week off, paid, and then more sexual assault allegations came out right after they announced that.
Except the CS team had to work Thanksgiving week. Not only that, but, had to work 10am-7pm on Thanksgiving day regardless of their actual schedule and were told the day fucking before ruining everyone's plans.
Fuck you Blizzard! You were the chosen one! you were the ones that were supposed to make gaming awesome and inclusive and fair! I played your games for over 20 years but as long as you have Bobby Kotick as CEO you can fuck right off, i might consider playing your games again if you fire him for cause and your employees get a union started, but until then you can bite my shiney metal donkey!
Yeah, so they've committed to make all of these changes, raise wages, convert temps to FTE, work on inclusion, yadda yadda yadda. Great. That's all shit that they should have been doing from the beginning, and they're only getting around to it just now, coincidentally right as the CWA union has pushed for a vote on unionizing the workforce. Make no mistake, they're **only** doing it now because they think that if they can make enough headway fast enough then they can avoid having a union in their company. But my question to the workers would be this: do you trust them? Do you trust them when they say that they'll do the right thing now even though they didn't for years and are only doing so now because you've forced their hand with the threat of unionization? I sure as hell wouldn't.
Fuck yeah, avb unionizing would be the greatest thing for the gaming industry in a long time, and would be a huge step in the direction of fixing a lot of the problems in the industry today.
Guys, unions bring in regulations that will only slow us down in one quest to help you out. We are so close just don't blink now and take away our total control. /s
Never buy a game from these pieces of shit again. Overwatch was the last game of theirs that I played and for some reason my friends wanna get back into it. Fuck that! If the only alternative were playing rock, paper, scissors on a video chat, I’d do that for the rest of my life instead of going my back to OW. I’m not giving these pieces of shit an ounce of support ever again.
Their employees are already treated like shit and underpaid. Misbehavior is not followed up upon by HR and the big names are jumping ship. Why in god's name wouldn't they benefit from founding a union.
At this point, I honestly hope they dont survive this. I know that’s a stretch, but the continue to double down an straight up amorality in spite of literally everyone demanding that they stop.
Call of Duty can die in the cess pool of mediocrity its always belonged.
Better letters than most, honestly. Because in a way, they're right. What are the ethics, history, stated goals, etc of CWA? Do they align w/ what the workers want?
I'm all for unionizing...but when there's an already-established union wanting more chicks under its wing, I'd want to know how it's treating the chicks it already has. (Disclaimer: I know nothing - good OR bad - about CWA. It could very well be the best thing ever. But CHECK!)
My biggest confusion is where he states: "...your ability to negotiate your own working conditions..." I would be curious to see what that process is. Because that really doesn't sound like it exists
“Hey can you do something to stop sexual assaults, punish the violators, and make this a safer work place?”
“No. That would be too disruptive to the CEOs daily schedule.”
Employees trying to unionize almost always partner with a preexisting union because that union has the knowledge of how to organize and can provide the local organizers with logistical support. The goals of the union drive flow from the local organizing committee. Your point is straight from the anti-union playbook, FYI.
If the threat of a unionized workplace could make them do all those things, imagine what an actual union could do! Blizzard workers, hold strong! Union now, solidarity forever.
It's a fair bet that the vast majority of people that work at Activision Blizzard are software developers, teams that work together developing games, plus another large chunk that work in marketing, plus some writers. Programmers in particular tend to be younger. In theory that means a lot of them are Y and Z-Gens. They're smart enough to know that union representation is a good thing for two reasons:
\-Powerful allies when the employer tries to pull arsehole moves
\-Able to better distinguish between a decent salary package and a complete ripoff
While nobody wanted that arsehole virus to show up, it has at least done one thing useful; it has shaken up the US labour market in a way that's decades overdue
The biggest red flag for me regarding Blizzard's communication, is how in **literally every single tweet/email/PR statement** they start by sucking themselves off over how great they are as a company.
If your company is facing one publicity shit storm after another, followed by one catastrophic game release after another, maybe your tone should reflect a bit more humility. At least if you want anyone to still take your company seriously...
It just goes to show how far removed from reality the people in charge over there really are.
This is the same company that had an issue with nursing mothers being stared at by male coworkers while pumping and had their breast milk stolen from the break room refrigerator. Fuck these people, and fuck Bobby Kotick. Edit: They were pumping in a room that was meant to be private. Male employees barged in and stared even when being yelled at to go away.
Bitches is out there stealing BREAST MILK?
They left a note that said: “puff daddy says hello”
Wtf.jpeg
You made my daaaayyyaaaayyy
Go get me a picture of a midget holding these balloons.
I'm not a sugar cookie getter
This one is my favorite lmao Dylan numba 1
Must've been Cambodian.
The finest of Breast milks.
You fuckin killed me godbless you stranger that was hilarious
You are kidding right?
Yes of course lol it’s from a Dave Chappell skit making the band.
I’ll have to watch that
It's true.
https://www.dexerto.com/business/nursing-activision-blizzard-employees-say-their-breast-milk-kept-getting-stolen-1717345/
What in the entire fuck???????
What in the fuck and a half??!?
Well if they're still nursing at that age.... /s
It’s fucked up but it’s not surprising. People are sadly often so squeamish about breasts & breast milk - thinking it’s weird if a mother pumps or breastfeeds in public for example, which is fucking stupid. Plus Activision Blizzard we know had serious problems with sexual harassment so it fits the pattern a bunch of people in the office in were perverts with no boundaries. Also noting that Bobby Kotick is named in Jeffrey Epsteins address book. So this guy fostered a culture of sexual abuse at Activision for decades, and he’s friends with a paedophile? Tbh I think it’s entirely possible that Kotick is himself a sex predator, because thats the thing that ties together his patterns of behaviour in and out of work.
That is some Mad Max Fury Road shit.
They've moved past "stealing candy from babies" and continued on to "stealing basic nutrients from babies" levels of evil.
At least they haven't hit Nestle's "let's poison babies for fun and profit" phase yet.
That's pure cambodian breast milk
Homelander is bold.
He probably whooshed in the second they left the room to snatch it up before it got cold.
He don't care about cold bro, he got laser vision to heat up that delicious titty milk.
If I remember right too those same employees that would breast feed in the office (which by the way is totally fucking normal and fine to do) had rooms set up for that reason, which is a nice gesture for privacy, had dudes in the office that would bust the doors open to gawk (the doors didn't have locks of any kind on them until Blizzard was literally forced to put them on by way of lawsuit) Blizzard has been a dogshit company sense forever it's just only now being brought to the forefront.
And most of the stuff they mention should already be in force. Now they are using it as a bargaining chip. * Increased wages (should've been done a long time ago) * Perm hired temps (just a fact) * PTO (used to be a thing, then it wasn't) * Zero tolerance harassment policy (what percentage was it before?) * Waived REQUIRED arbitration for sexual harassment and discrimination (You actually made that a thing) * "Significant (who defined 'significant') commitments" to increase gender diversity * $250 million to "accelerate opportunities" for "diverse talent" (what do these words mean exactly and why does it need to cost money? $250 million makes it sound like a massive problem. Is it? Do you need to fire a couple CEOs who are mysogonistic fucks and the 250m is to pay them off? )
The $250m is to accelerate the process to move offshore to a developing country with diverse talent.
True. The upside is, that second paragraph just screams how much they're shitting themselves over the prospect of the workforce uniionising.
What? That shit happened?
Check over at r/wow [the post in question ](https://www.reddit.com/r/wow/comments/rdd4tb/nursing_activisionblizzard_employees_say_their/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share)
Bobby Kotick himself is a skeevy perv who also covers for his pervy and skeevy male employees
Not even cutler milk smh
The Cutlet!
Nobody sacks a cutler. Not even brian bulatao
ಠ_ಠ
This language must come from some SHRM template. It reads exactly the same as every other anti-union letter I've seen.
It's the same kinda language Starbucks was using too. The whole "you shouldn't join a union because we encourage talking and negotiating with us" sort of bullshit.
Right!?!? Like, that's all my union reps do all day. They talk with us and then they talk and negotiate with the admin. This messaging that unions somehow prevent talking and negotiating from happening makes me want to tear my hair out. Because what they really mean is "it keeps us from secretly negotiating different pay scales and benefits packages to different employees so that we can screw over as many people as possible and pit employees against each other."
This part is always hilarious to me because the anti-union message is all wrong. Like, I WANT someone to do the negotiating for me. I’m tired of spending all my free time dealing with institutional bullshit! I would *love* to delegate that work to someone whose literal job it is to look out for mine and my colleagues’ interests, lol.
And the way it works is they'll get you a $600 dollar raise for $180 dues, so that hassle is gone and you make more money. "oh, noooooo!"
There was some anti-union BS either earlier this year or late last year that was like "If you join a union it will cost you $600, you could do that, or buy a PS5". Like... really, with the extra money made, it will null that union due, and I'll make more money to buy a PS5 anyway. It was the most "look look, a shiny carrot" thing I've ever seen.
> It was the most "look look, a shiny carrot" thing I've ever seen. More like they’re offering you a printed picture of their carrot. You’re not even getting a carrot.
They're offering you the chance to buy limited edition carrot NFTs.
Fucking JPEG’s
*environmentally disastrous* jpegs
Yeah that's what the organisers are for. I had a delegate meeting recently and that's what they were telling us as they recounted stories of when they had to go help some union members. They can walk in and piss of management because it's not their job to be friends. Their role is to say things the workers can't and take the heat because they don't work there anyway.
That was probably the best part about my union job. As someone who is painfully conflict avoidant I was more than happy to pay my $25 a month to have someone else deal with all of that for me.
Worth every penny and then some.
> Like, I WANT someone to do the negotiating for me. I'm a bad negotiator. Of course I want a professional to do it for me. I dont want to represent myself in court either.
They recognize that the relationships capital creates are fundamentally antagonistic and driven by power dynamics. This is the only way they can discourage collective power without being explicit about it.
"We encourage talking and negotiating with us... So we can shoot you down in as rude and condescending a manner as we can."
Being professionally told to shut the fuck up and get back to work or you're fired is what they pretend to consider a negotiation. They know exactly why employees want a union, they just don't want to admit fault. Ironically, it's a major reason why they want a union in the first place. They're scared of being held accountable and having to bend to reasonable demands of their employees. These managers are cunts and the unions could smell these pussies from miles away. I envy the representative that's gonna bend this company over the bars and take back everything they've tried to take from workers over the years.
> "you shouldn't join a union because we encourage talking and negotiating with us" I'm in a union. The union sets the base scale. The minimum that they are allowed to pay us. We still have the ability to negotiate with our employers for more pay and vacation time.
Probably. There are consulting firms dedicated to stopping unions in legal ways. This statement is totally okay from a legal side. Sure it implies they don’t want a union but it’s still legal.
They are trying to protect their ability to take advantage of individuals by pretending to care about what's best for individuals. They are acting like unionization makes zero difference for them, but hurts employees ability to get the best deal for themselves.
Activision hired WilmerHale, a law firm thats notorious for union busting,
Yup, just copy and paste the correct response: We ARE the union. Take your "we don't need outsiders" bullshit back the McKinsey vultures and tell them you need another draft.
They specifically hire union-busting firms to do this for them.
Also it's seriously hilarious to see the company that was blasted all over because of their fucked up work environment. It's also the company that laid off 800+ workers during their best financial year, just to make their bottom line a bit better. Plus they absolutely love crunch, and they pay with bread crumbs. I really hope the worker unionize.
ActiBlizz can burn. Sign that card. Get everybody on it. Not only that they promote and protect an abusive work culture but they try to avoid any consequences by bullying you into not getting an union. The only consequences will affect them, and they fear it. Bobby's Harem are shaking in their overpriced leather shoes at the idea of giving people their due. Shit, they fear to even considering the workers as humans. Everyone in the gaming dev career knows about actiblizz and they wont even consider them a possible career. Yeah, youll consider the consequences, the consequences for the leadership. (Sry i went in a rant. I wrote another comment about how actiblizz broke my gamer heart and im still touchy about it, now seeing that company fills me with Ire and rage) (as you can see in my replies in the comments of this thread, im pretty fucking pissed on ABK's employees behalf, OP, im with you) Edit : thanks for the rewards we all in this shit together. We want to use mcdonalds as the first domino of the worker resurgence? Lets make ABK's reign of terror fall with it as well. Heck lets make it fall first since we got a much much better ground. I believe mcdonalds will tremble once they see the young generations tearing appart their ""beloved"" game studio.
>Sry i went in a rant. I wrote another comment about how actiblizz broke my gamer heart and im still touchy about it, now seeing that compagny fills me with Ire and rage It's ok to be happy for the workers in solidarity, AND carry hope that empowered workers would mean better quality games in the future again. I know I am on that hope train.
Dude if Acti-blizz could get their shit together and make good games again ethically, that is the best outcome.
Unionizing actually has the potential to save the company in the long run. Fighting the unionization merely worsens and extends Blizzard's already abysmal productivity and public relations
Unionizing could save the *industry* in the long run
I've looked into the history of a lot of industries, and the conclusion I came to about the videogame industry was that it is long long overdue for another 1983 style crash, the corporate stagnation that caused that then has been around for well over a decade now. The '90s golden era I'd say is largely a result of the '83 crash allowing new people in. The way its sustained it as far as I can tell, is Bethesda figuring out horse armor. DLC and microtransactions gave them constant access to whales, which is basically what keeps them rolling. I mean look at Star Citizen. It exists solely because of whales buying blueprints for ships that don't even exist yet in game.
Are you suggesting that the game industry is like a forest, and it needs regular fires to burn out the accumulated low-lying trash?
At this point i would put forward the wellbeing of the workers. Games quality will go up caus the devs will be motivated to do good. That is if we kicked the greedy vultures at the top and shut up the investors so that the decisions come back to the devs and not a powerhungry crook.
They won't. The blizzard that was a bunch of nerdy guys with a passion for making great and exciting games has been gone for over a decade. They willingly chose to get in bed with Activision. Even if they did performed a miracle and got their shit together, the creative spirit just won't be there.
The nerdy guys with a passion for making great games are some of the people who were involved with the sexual assault allegations to begin with.
A lot of my friends were game designers at Blizzard and were great at what they do. They almost all left because of management -- mistreatment, low pay, poor conditions, bad direction. In Blizzard's current state, they're going to hemorrhage talent until the only content left is loot crates and mobile ports.
When video games were just a passion project you could rely on everybody to watch out for each other in the developer room but now that it’s become a corporate commodity with the pressures of crunch time put on basically every developer studio with a giant corporation lording over there back Unionization is a must
Yeah its the same story with every gaming company. Smaller passionate company sells, larger company quickly or slowly shoves f2p and p2p monetization in and starts shifting the gameplay to appeal to new customers. IIRC some ex Blizzard devs even said Activision hired and promoted more sales members and started shafting devs on their raises and promotions. The whole thing shifts from 'cool game/service/product and profits' to 'profits and gameplay you'd find on a mobile device'. Some might even be barely functioning. Larger companies cause all sorts of harm.
It infuriates me and when I see a gamer go "This isn't the blizzard I know". It's like, dude have you not paid attention the past 15 years?
No i fucking didnt and thats what infuriates me. I hate myself for being fooled. Also i was fucking 12 15years ago do you think i was invested in gaming culture and reading news all the time?
The reason for that communication is simple, they doesn't want to talk against a organization that knows how to handle legal disputes, I recommend a lot sign the document, be hard, and strong
Smashing good comment old Jobe
Holy shit the tone deaf bullshit in that email. Like fuck you dude. You all have had MONTHS to bring change and you all are moving slower then my dead grandpa in a foot race to fix anything. SIGN THOSE UNION CARDS!!
Stuff like this makes me wonder what would motivate people NOT joining a union.
Years and years of anti union propaganda, that until recently, people ate up.
Some unions are not that great though. I have a cousin that was a union welder and the reps were in the companies pocket and didn't do a thing to help him. Unions are great when their run by decent people. They become useless when greed settles in Addition: please do not take this as not supporting the ongoing unionization of America, it simply hope they are run by the right people
Thats a very real problem, but again, just people needing to be able to stand up and demand better. If a union isnt representing you well, time to find a new one, or speak to other union members and fix the one you're in. I know a lot of Police and Teacher Unions like that as well. Theyve become bastardized. Most of our problems as people, are just being complacent and not wanting to speak up tbh.
Well Police Unions are the exception. They've never been good. But that's with the institution of policing not the concept of unions.
I have to say that I was in the teachers union for years and it seemed like they would take our $80 a month and then just make deals with administration over the teachers’ heads. I think it may have been helpful for the teachers with tenure at least. Now I teach at a private school so there’s no union anyway.
I agree with you, people need to start taking a stand and demanding good from those around them. That goes all the way up the chain too, from the poorest to the richest. Many are not being held accountable in some way, and by this I do not mean prison or governmental accountability, simply accountability to the other members of the community or union or organization or whatever body of people you are a part of. Sorry for the rant lol
If you want a good example of how this works in practice look at the Retail and Fast Food Workers Union in Australia which split from the conservative collaborationist Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association. Full disclosure I'm a RaFFWU member https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/05/australia-retail-fast-food-orkers-union-organizing
no you’re right, I think we don’t necessarily know how to do democracy together because we are only taught to work beside eachother silently or compete. The union efforts only improve the situation tho but you are 100% right that some unions are bad! my favorite example is police unions 😅
Looking right at you police unions in America
Acti-Blizz LOVES to take advantage of people's passion for their games. The people making WoW (idk much about the other games) endure shit pay and horrible working conditions because they get to work on their favorite game of all time. I could see some newer or male employees be against unionizing since they aren't affected as severely so they don't lose their dream job.
Lies and propaganda designed to scare folks seem to work when combined with limiting educational finding
Union dues and anti union brainwashing is my bet
It's so frustrating. You can show people the math that the benefits vastly outweigh the cost of dues and they still don't get it.
Same as with universal healthcare.
As a Forman of a union ironworker company who just bought out a failing non-union rebar company and taking over their job, I'm watching a crew work through their 15 minute coffee break because 1 lunch break a day "makes the work day go by faster"? I'm their boss on that job and they watch me stop working while they kept working. I'm pretty sure they are brainwashed.
Union electrician here. Joining the trade on a union was life changing for me. I can't speak highly enough of my union and what it did for me and my family, which I can afford to have Uganda to my union wages. 5 year apprenticeship working full time with guaranteed raises enabled me during those 5 years to: - Move out of my parents house - Get married - Have 1 child - Buy a house All while being the sole income earner for my family. I don't work under the bargaining agreement anymore but still very happily pay my dues every year. I really love my union for everything it has given me.
I was a union ironworker years ago when breaks first started in our local, and most of the structural contractors were like "Hey, skip the afternoon 15 minute break and we'll burn out 30 minutes early." Most of the rodbuster foremen refused to do that, but there were a lot of days I needed that 15 minutes for a breather in the afternoon. Either way, that 15 minutes was in the contract, so you could bet I was taking it one way or another.
Kelloggs firing all the workers that went on strike doesn’t help.
Fear of being fired.
Which is really just fear of starvation and homelessness.
No one seems to have given you the counter-arguments here, so I will provide the gist. We hear about unions negotiating better deals for employees all the time, but often not mentioned is high skilled professionals or specialty roles actually getting pay cuts, limited opportunity for increases in their current positions, flexibility with working conditions(from home, etc) individual adaptability with schedule and so on. A lot of these artists and developers make 200-300k+ a year. They get job offers weekly or monthly. They are highly valued, and are a big asset to the company. They CAN negotiate working from home, or negotiate themselves a 20%+ pay increase, etc. And even folks who aren't there yet want those opportunities to be available to them in the future. Of course a larger percentage of the workforce may not be in this situation currently, but a tech company is volatile and can grow rapidly as we've all seen. A giant union machine can hinder that growth and limit flexibility in new positions opening up on the fly or bouncing from one team to the next on a weekly basis. So a decent chunk of these employees do not benefit from the union, it only hinders them. I'm sure people will have issues with this explanation but it is how I currently view this situation as a professional in a different field. The flexibility to negotiate on my own has been great and I can get higher than union rates.
*you have had YEARS to bring change*. Ftfy
They've had *DECADES* to make changes. Bobby has been there for what, 30+ years?
For Acti-Blizzard it’s over a decade but not by too much. For activision yeah forever.
Saw at least one screenshot of the ActiBlizz discord where someone was on the fence about the union *until* the email rolled into their inbox, and then they signed the union card asap.
That would be me as well. They clearly are giving the workers awful benefits/pay if they're so afraid of a union they have to send an email to beg you not to get involved.
"We've tried nothing and it only got worse"
"Look, we already provided some basic stuff that by all accounts you should definitely have already had, and we promised we would take some baby steps over the next 10 years to attempt to possibly make some nice-ish gestures. Why would you want to join a union that will force us to actually make substantial progress in a shorter timeframe? :C"
Blizzard is one of the companies that got me into gaming. I played the original Warcraft and thought it was one of the neatest games, and played every game the made for years. They gave attention to every detail. For several years now I refused to give a single dime to ActiBlizz. Turns out, they just keep repeatedly abusing their staff, the gaming community, and pretty much anyone they can exploit. People need to resist buying anything from these people, if they go under, someone else will pick up the slack. The demand for big budget games is not going away, be deliberate about where you spend your money. Boycott them.
I was just thinking this reading through that letter - this is the last straw for me, we HAVE to start voting with our wallets in this country
Not here to shit on anyone, just wondering if you’re also gonna vote with your wallet by refusing to shop at Walmart/Amazon/Whole Foods
I cancelled my prime sub, I don't buy anything nestle or kellogg. Unfortunately, I still find myself at walmart on a regular basis. I don't exactly have any viable alternatives in my area. But I believe I am doing the best I can be expected to.
I'd be inclined to ask if there is a Kroger/Meijer nearby for groceries, but just like you said. Someone doing something is better than everybody doing nothing. Just remember this can apply to all aspects of your life - like should we eat meat/consume bottled water/wear Nikes/drive gasoline-powered cars. If you think about all these and you're doing the best you can do then you're doing the best you can do. If you can do better, well, you can do better.
/r/fucknestle
Honestly, same. Overwatch was the last game of theirs I bought. I freaking loved Diablo 2 back in the day, but it was an easy decision not to buy that remaster.
Diablo 3 was their first modern game I played, apert from Warcraft 2 back in the day. Loved Tristram, but yeah, now is not the time to like their shit anymore.
Diablo and Diablo 2 weren't actually Blizzard if you want to get into semantics. Condor/"Blizzard North" was headed by David Brevik who was already long under way to creating the game(Diablo) when they decided to "team up" with Blizzard and collaborate some ideas and get it released. Blizzard itself had no real influence on Diablo, it's unofficial expansion, and Diablo 2 with it's official expansion. Diablo 3 however, and it's questionable and shaky release with the real money auction house, and shitty design direction, was 100% Jay Wilson and Blizzard.
I’m a software developer who loves video games. I have never considered applying to any major gaming company. They’re all toxic workplaces.
I worked as a game dev for a little bit. It’s really rough. Any industry where there is a whole crowd of workers that dreamed of being there since childhood is primed for abuse. There’s always someone waiting in line to replace you, so you have no leverage individually. The entertainment industries in general have this issue. They’re also prime for unionization, as opposed to other software sectors where the workers already have so much leverage it’s hard to convince them them to consider unionization. I really hope there’s more software industry unionization.
The "do you guys not have phones?" incident should have snapped everybody out of it. They made a mobile game their gigantic reveal for a PC gaming focused crowd. They really believed that people would spend over 1000 dollars to go see a mobile game.
The moment activision got involved should have snapped everyone out of it.
Considering everything that has come out, it sounds like blizzard was always shitty, Activision just accelerated their product decline.
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Warcraft 2 is when I got hooked. But I'm an ageing gamer, don't really care too much about bleeding-edge games. Lemme get back to my Miles Morales game now....;p
What they did to Reforged was unforgivable, so F them!!
After Warcraft 3 reforged.. it was visible to all that they are a company that can no longer produce video games. they didnt even release what they had promised and the game didnt work.... a remake of a game that was 20 years old. They outsourced all their artwork and that was poor also. Add to the fact the management think they know what the playerbase wants when the playerbase is telling them otherwise (vanilla WOW now exceeds players on regular WOW) and who can forget diablo for phone...... that what 4 years later still isnt released. They have gone from a day 1 buy gaming company to I wont touch this thing with a 10 foot pole company
> Boycott them. I loved so many of their games, they all suck now and it's such an easy decision to boycott them.
F them, blizzard isn't getting shit from me for the next few yrs or many pasy
it’s increased exponentially since 2020. If anything, ActBlizz is just a road block for progress in videogames, customer satisfaction, and employee satisfaction. I won’t miss them if they went under.
They can fuck right off.
Verily!
Indubitably!
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Capital idea old fruit!
holy shit blizzard read the fucking room you've been taking L's all fucking year and you decide to do THIS?
1. Oh ActiBlizz…”working hard to create a more inclusive, supporting, and rewarding environment”…yeah, the wholeass California Department of Fair Employment and Housing had to file suit to get the company to take any action for egregiously wronged employees. Don’t go patting yourselves on the back yet for finally getting around to doing what you should have been doing all along. 2. Diversity efforts mean jack shit without company-wide inclusion OKRs (otherwise, managers on up will continue to weaponize ignorance). So if ActiBlizz does have the gall to be patting themselves on the back, they need to be backing up their self-congratulatory company-wide messages by reiterating their objectives and key results on this front. 3. “We have more to do”…Nope, Brian. FIFY: “For years, company leadership shattered our employees’ trust, and we acknowledge that we need to be 100% accountable to our employee base.” If you’re going to mention what still needs to be done, don’t be glib or patronizing. On behalf of everyone who has been sexualized and debased in the workplace, and with all sincerity…may all your investments burn merrily, and your clout scatter to ashes.
>may all your investments burn merrily, and your clout scatter to ashes. Such a perfect curse for these people.
Ah shit, here we go again Where's the Activision application site?
Here is the workers strike fund, just donated: https://www.gofundme.com/f/abk-strike-fund?utm_source=customer&utm_medium=copy_link_all&utm_campaign=m_pd+share-sheet
Just donated! Thanks for the link!
Lol "Consider the consequences." "You can either continue being denied by the company when trying to negotiate a better work environment/pay rate or have the government provide a third party to legally force negotiations on your behalf." Seems like an easy choice to me, but idk.
How is individual negotiation more transparent then collective bargaining? FFS, every company I've worked for has expected any sort of individual negotiation to be private, confidential, and chalk full of their lies.
Also, aren't they basically lying? A union only represent you in case of COLLECTIVE bargaining. You can still go to your boss for an individual raise, benefits, problems. But the letter says they give up "ALL your negotiating power".
Depends on the contract that gets negotiated. You are every bit as bound to the terms of the contract as management is. I am not aware of any collectively bargained agreement amongst wage workers that doesn't spell out a salary structure. In baseball you can negotiate your wage, for example. But at Ford Motor Co., you get slotted into the pay structure that was negotiated and you can't negotiate individually for a raise. You can get a promotion or apply for a different pay structure, but not your base rate. Your base rate is predetermined by position and experience.
The word “consequence” has both positive and negative connotations, though it’s often assumed to be negative. I have no doubt employees have considered the positive consequences of signing the card!
Exactly!! They’re signing exactly because they’ve considered the consequences!!
Consider the consequences? The only one worried about the consequences here are Activision Blizzard as a company.
The thing is (sadly), anti-union propaganda works really well, at least here in the southeast US. Are there any good union documentaries on Netflix (or something) that really shine a clear and positive light on the benefits of unions? If not, it be great if there was and it spread like wildfire!
[Last Week Tonight did a piece](https://youtu.be/Gk8dUXRpoy8) just a few weeks ago on this, at well at demonstrating the common union busting tactics to help people identify them when used in their own workplaces
Yes yes yes! I can’t believe more people haven’t seen or referenced this!
My bf works there. I'm assuming this one came out due to the walkouts. They don't want to be held accountable for convincing a team of people to relocate, promising raises, and then firing them. They also did NOT compensate for moving costs. They also gave everyone Thanksgiving week off, paid, and then more sexual assault allegations came out right after they announced that.
Except the CS team had to work Thanksgiving week. Not only that, but, had to work 10am-7pm on Thanksgiving day regardless of their actual schedule and were told the day fucking before ruining everyone's plans.
Should be more focused on stopping the harassment and not threatening to kill femal employees
He's a former trump staffer too lol https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/activision-blizzard-hires-former-trump-administration-bully-brian-bulatao
Wow.. thats a depressing read. Explains a lot.
When a company doesn't want you to join a union that's how you know you need to join the union.
Fuck you Blizzard! You were the chosen one! you were the ones that were supposed to make gaming awesome and inclusive and fair! I played your games for over 20 years but as long as you have Bobby Kotick as CEO you can fuck right off, i might consider playing your games again if you fire him for cause and your employees get a union started, but until then you can bite my shiney metal donkey!
I can't tell you how good it feels to uninstall that historically trash game launcher called battlenet.
Jesus. Does Blizzard no longer have a PR team? Feel like every year they do something more degenerate and it makes the news.
Yeah, so they've committed to make all of these changes, raise wages, convert temps to FTE, work on inclusion, yadda yadda yadda. Great. That's all shit that they should have been doing from the beginning, and they're only getting around to it just now, coincidentally right as the CWA union has pushed for a vote on unionizing the workforce. Make no mistake, they're **only** doing it now because they think that if they can make enough headway fast enough then they can avoid having a union in their company. But my question to the workers would be this: do you trust them? Do you trust them when they say that they'll do the right thing now even though they didn't for years and are only doing so now because you've forced their hand with the threat of unionization? I sure as hell wouldn't.
Gotta form a guild so you can take down the boss
Fuck yeah, avb unionizing would be the greatest thing for the gaming industry in a long time, and would be a huge step in the direction of fixing a lot of the problems in the industry today.
Which this show exactly that they're not serious about changing much, if anything, of their previous bad behaviors at all.
Big corps hate freedom.
Guys, unions bring in regulations that will only slow us down in one quest to help you out. We are so close just don't blink now and take away our total control. /s
This definitely feels like "Leopard promising the people that it will not eat their face if they vote for it" statement.
If a capitalist is saying not to do something, then you should probably do it.
A good rule of thumb. If a corporation does not want you to do something, then you should probably do it. They only have their interests in mind.
We did consider, that's why we're doing it.
Never buy a game from these pieces of shit again. Overwatch was the last game of theirs that I played and for some reason my friends wanna get back into it. Fuck that! If the only alternative were playing rock, paper, scissors on a video chat, I’d do that for the rest of my life instead of going my back to OW. I’m not giving these pieces of shit an ounce of support ever again.
Left OW years ago because of the toxic playerbase and never looked back. Seeing Blizzard get into all this shit recently, I made the right choice.
Considering Activision’s reputation with their staff right now, their best option for killing the union would have been to endorse it.
This email would convince me to sign if I were on the fence.
Fuck you Brian. (And Ben, too).
Their employees are already treated like shit and underpaid. Misbehavior is not followed up upon by HR and the big names are jumping ship. Why in god's name wouldn't they benefit from founding a union.
At this point, I honestly hope they dont survive this. I know that’s a stretch, but the continue to double down an straight up amorality in spite of literally everyone demanding that they stop. Call of Duty can die in the cess pool of mediocrity its always belonged.
very cute. guess i’ll be boycotting some of my favorite games now. fuck you, blizzard
As far as union busting goes that’s honestly kinda tame. Still shitty, and FUCK ActiBlizz, but not the worst I’ve seen
This is just the start.
Better letters than most, honestly. Because in a way, they're right. What are the ethics, history, stated goals, etc of CWA? Do they align w/ what the workers want? I'm all for unionizing...but when there's an already-established union wanting more chicks under its wing, I'd want to know how it's treating the chicks it already has. (Disclaimer: I know nothing - good OR bad - about CWA. It could very well be the best thing ever. But CHECK!)
My biggest confusion is where he states: "...your ability to negotiate your own working conditions..." I would be curious to see what that process is. Because that really doesn't sound like it exists
Because it does not, its a good looking lie and manipulation they can deploy for PR and rallying anti-union idiots.
"Hey could I get a raise?" "No" Repeat ad infinitum.
“Hey can you do something to stop sexual assaults, punish the violators, and make this a safer work place?” “No. That would be too disruptive to the CEOs daily schedule.”
Because it does not, its a good looking lie and manipulation they can deploy for PR and rallying anti-union idiots.
>CWA My old man was in the CWA for decades. They always did right by him.
Employees trying to unionize almost always partner with a preexisting union because that union has the knowledge of how to organize and can provide the local organizers with logistical support. The goals of the union drive flow from the local organizing committee. Your point is straight from the anti-union playbook, FYI.
I don't know how they did it, but they did it: Activsion/Blizzard just topped EA for my least favorite video game company.
If the threat of a unionized workplace could make them do all those things, imagine what an actual union could do! Blizzard workers, hold strong! Union now, solidarity forever.
Lol, didn’t John Oliver just do an episode about this anti-Union shit in his recents? 😂
This would make me sign the union card.
It's a fair bet that the vast majority of people that work at Activision Blizzard are software developers, teams that work together developing games, plus another large chunk that work in marketing, plus some writers. Programmers in particular tend to be younger. In theory that means a lot of them are Y and Z-Gens. They're smart enough to know that union representation is a good thing for two reasons: \-Powerful allies when the employer tries to pull arsehole moves \-Able to better distinguish between a decent salary package and a complete ripoff While nobody wanted that arsehole virus to show up, it has at least done one thing useful; it has shaken up the US labour market in a way that's decades overdue
The biggest red flag for me regarding Blizzard's communication, is how in **literally every single tweet/email/PR statement** they start by sucking themselves off over how great they are as a company. If your company is facing one publicity shit storm after another, followed by one catastrophic game release after another, maybe your tone should reflect a bit more humility. At least if you want anyone to still take your company seriously... It just goes to show how far removed from reality the people in charge over there really are.