Activision Blizzard responds to union talk with anti-union talk
Yesterday’s report on Activision’s continued shutdown also pointed out that some of the publisher’s employees appeared to be stepping up their efforts to join the union. Although it is not yet clear how extensive or successful these efforts are, they are enough to draw the attention of the company’s management: Activision Blizzard’s chief administrative officer Brian Bulatao’s internal information warns employees that, in fact, voting Supporting unions can be bad.
“As you might have seen yesterday, a communication supported by the Communications Workers Association of America (CWA) requires employees to sign and submit a union authorization card,” the message said. “I want to be clear: the leadership of Activision Blizzard supports your right to decide whether to join a trade union in accordance with the National Labor Relations Law.
“When you make this decision for your future, we only ask you to take the time to consider the consequences of your signature on the binding legal document submitted to you by CWA. Once you sign the document, you will sign it to the CWA representative right [you] Used for collective bargaining on all terms and conditions of employment. This means that, as the document says, your ability to negotiate all your working conditions will be handed over to CWA. “
The outgoing senior test analyst Jessica Gonzalez (Jessica Gonzalez) shared a copy of the news on Twitter.
Bulatao said that through dialogue between management and employees, rather than CWA, the “workplace cultural aspirations” can be better realized.
“If we fail to achieve the workplace goals we set-if we do not accomplish what we promised to do-then of course you still have the right to participate and vote for CWA,” he said. Write. “But we are confident that we will make the progress we promised before and work with you to create a workplace that we can all be proud of.”
The news caused considerable contempt on Twitter. Many replies view it as a hidden threat, while others wonder why Activision is so committed to change, but not achieving it faster. The broad consensus is that Activision Blizzard is very eager to prevent unionization.
CWA also issued an opinion, calling the statement “disappointing.”
Disappointingly, the management of Activision Blizzard had another option. They could have done the right thing, redoubled their efforts and continued to go downhill. 1/December 10, 2021
“Instead of responding to workers’ concerns, they chose to attack the most tiring anti-union talking points directly from the playbook that destroys unions,” CWA tweeted. “The union avoidance campaign wastes resources that ABK management could have used to solve serious problems, such as compensating victims of sexual harassment. We hope that management will realize and see that their only viable way forward is to satisfy the initial strike, including Ensure that there is a lasting voice of workers in all company affairs.”
The negative backlash is not surprising—at least to me it’s a bit surprising that Activision Blizzard’s leadership would think that publishing this kind of information is a good idea. They must know that the information will be public and will not be welcomed. The only reasonable conclusion seems to be that they think it is worthwhile to spread doubts about unionization.
A few hours after Blatau’s message, Julie Hodges, chief personnel officer, sent another message to managers, offering a “training course” on how to answer employee and union-related questions. It also did not end well.
Nothing scares irresponsible executives more than being held accountable for organized employee behavior. https://t.co/CJKjBinD6qDecember 10, 2021
One GoFundMe event Launched on Thursday to support Activision Blizzard employees who left in support of Raven Software contract workers who were fired last week, now up to nearly $250,000.