Another branch of Blizzard Entertainment has organized under the Communications Workers of America. Today the union announced that over 400 employees of the company’s Platform & Technology department have successfully voted to unionize. This group includes workers with a wide variety of job titles including graphic designers, engineers, and project managers on Battle.net, as well as workers in localization, quality assurance testing, and customer support in on other Blizzard products.
The union has been recognized by Microsoft. Workers will be represented by CWA Local 9510 in Irvine, CA and Local 6215 in Austin, TX.
In the announcement, organizing committee members Daniel Weltz, Alex Kohn, and Timothy Biley cited the mass departure of their colleagues—either because of layoffs or being underpaid—as a driving force in their decision to unionize. “Our culture is our people and we can’t afford to lose that,” said Weltz, a principle software engineer.
In an email interview with the trio, they explained that Blizzard’s heavily contested return-to-office policies also weighed heavily on unionizing employees. They said that in the next few weeks, the union will elect a bargaining committee and send out a survey to members to learn about their highest priorities, then begin negotiating a contract with Microsoft.
“Having more unions increase workplace standards across the board,” the group said when asked how unionization can impact the industry as a whole. “Workplaces will now have to offer certain things in order to remain competitive to workers.”
“The industry itself also tends to view the people who make video games as disposable…we’re hopeful that with more unions in the industry, we can turn that perception around.” Workers interested in learning more about the unionization process can contact CWA here.
