Game News Blizzard: An employee accuses his bosses!
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Salary drifts in the video game, there have always been. To power the consoles and microphones of yesteryear, it was not uncommon for developers to explode their hour counter, but some, like those of Rare for example, saw the thing as a big family. At the time, they were young and worked in an atmosphere that often resembled a summer camp. Today, video games have become an industry and what could be tolerated yesterday can no longer be tolerated in 2023. Also, when there are deviations, not only is it known, but it can make a lot of noise. The Blizzard Boston boss must have ringing ears…
Known as Blizzard Boston, the Proletariat studio has decided to withdraw its union petition. Filed at the end of December with the National Labor Relations Board, it aimed to elect a union in order to secure certain salary benefits (paid leave plan, health care benefits, options for telecommuting, etc.) . In the end, it only lasted a short month, the fault of a management that would have been threatening to the signatories. This seems to come from the words of a representative of Communications Workers of America. The latter is indeed part of a ” showdown tactic ” of the company taking the form ” of a series of meetings that demoralized and weakened the group, making a free and fair election impossible. Under pressure, the instigators of the petition chose to back down.
A personal betrayal according to the CEO of Blizzard Boston
After such a decision, it is obvious that the case was not going to stop there. Dustin Yost, software engineer at studio Proletariat, said in a statement that the majority of employees – originally – supported the need for a union. According to the interested parties, the meetings were subject to strong tension (the CEO judging that it was a personal betrayal) and the employees hope, after having withdrawn the petition, that the management will become aware of the issues. Even if all regret the future absence of a union. For Dustin Yost, a union is the best way to be heard.
The previous tweets were the statements of our Organizing Committee, and not representative of all Proletariat workers. There continues to be ongoing and healthy conversations amongst the proposed bargaining unit and the workers look forward to collaborating together! https://t.co/qN2JQKIs2t
— Proletariat Workers Alliance (@WeArePWA) January 17, 2023
At the same time, the management of Blizzard Boston, through the voice of Joe Christinat, vice-president of media relations, welcomed the decision without giving more details on the possibilities envisaged by the group. In this cacophony, some employees felt that the implementation of the petition had been rushed and that it would have had a different echo if it had been triggered outside the holiday season, when the company is closed. According to them, under other conditions, they could have thought about it differently. This suggests that not all employees had the same vision. Atmosphere.
If this decision had gone through, this union would have been the third in Activision Blizzard. We can therefore understand that the leaders began to have the droplet that pearls on the forehead. It now remains to be seen what sauce will be eaten by the employees of Blizzard Boston, a studio that works on World of Warcraft. Allison Brown, studio engineer, stressed in an interview that this search for salary security, even more so in a large group, is essential:
No matter how much trust we place in management…, things can change. I started in the industry 14 years ago, I’ve been fired more than once. I have seen the benefits change and get worse. There is no control over it. But if we bargain collectively, if we get those benefits in writing, there are mechanisms in place to make sure we have a strong voice.
Something tells us that this story is not over…
