Third Activision Blizzard studio forms labor union (NASDAQ:ATVI)
Another videogame studio at Activision Blizzard (ATVI) has formed a labor union, the third such group to have organized under the publisher in 2022
Mario Tama/Getty Images News Another videogame studio at Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ:ATVI) has begun forming a labor union, the third such group to have organized under the publisher in 2022. A 57-person unit at Proletariat has filed for representation by the Communications Workers of America. The group includes designers, animators, engineers, producers and quality assurance workers - notable as it would be the first union to include workers other than those in QA.
Proletariat was freshly acquired in June, saying it was uniting with Blizzard Entertainment to advance that company's World of Warcraft franchise. A group of just over 20 workers at Activision's Raven Software organized in January and approved unionization in May - a first for major videogame publishers - and workers at Blizzard Albany planned in July to organize and voted in favor in December. Activision Blizzard is in the midst of a $69B acquisition by Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), and Microsoft is facing its own first unionization effort - also in the videogaming space - as QA workers at ZeniMax Studios (parent of Bethesda Softworks) began organizing this month.