600 Activision QA staff have become gaming's biggest union to date
"It hasn't really hit about how monumental it is. But it feels really good to be a part of."
600 Activision Blizzard quality assurance (QA) workers have voted to unionise.
As reported by Polygon, hundreds of QA testers voted to unionise with the Communications Workers of America (CWA) to form Activision Quality Assurance United - CWA. Of the 398 votes submitted, just eight voted not to unionise.
Microsoft – which acquired Activision Blizzard last year for $69bn – voluntarily agreed to recognise the union, making it the largest game union in the US.
"Something we organised around is that in this industry, QA and customer service are the lowest paid jobs, and often looked down upon either within the industry or by customers," explained Kara Fannon, Activision QA tester and organising committee member.
"It’s easy for people to say to QA, 'Oh, I found a bug', even though we logged tens of thousands of bugs. So why is QA [unionising], as opposed to other people in the industry? We have the weakest protections currently and we want to make sure that we're strong so our work can keep going the way it is – we want to be supporting these games and working really hard on them."
Fannon confirmed that whilst Raven Software's union campaign was met with resistance, Microsoft took the unusual step of signing a labour neutrality agreement with CWA back in 2022, which means efforts this time were not undermined this time around by "union-busting tactics".
"Now under Microsoft with the neutrality agreement they signed with CWA, it’s a lot easier," Fannon said. "We don’t have to be concerned about any form of union-busting tactics. Microsoft made sure all managers were trained on neutrality. We knew that if we encountered union busting, we could bring it up so it's addressed."
“It's nice to know that everyone's gonna hear about this, and that people can be inspired to form their own unions," Fannon added. "I went to a conference and there were some people who were part of Starbucks Workers United. They were talking and I was feeling so inspired. And then I realised, people might feel that way about what we're doing. It hasn't really hit about how monumental it is. But it feels really good to be a part of."
More and more US developers are moving to unionise in the face of crushing layoffs and closures right across the industry, most recently Deviation Games, which shut its doors earlier this week.
The number of layoffs in 2024 across the whole games industry is estimated to be over 7500 so far. The total number of layoffs in 2023 is thought to be around 10,500. Chris Dring, head of GamesIndustry.biz, recently explored why there are so many layoffs in the video games industry right now.
"The video games industry faces its first major crisis in 40 years. It's an unprecedented and brutal situation. But if there's one thing that gives me hope, it's the games themselves," Dring wrote.
"Over the last year, we've seen some astonishing video games come out. The quality of what developers are making has never been better. And gamers are buying them in their millions. Ask a gamer if the industry is in crisis, and they'll no doubt look confused at the mere suggestion. The industry's foundations are strong, and it will bounce back."