Blizzard's 'Diablo' Devs Unionize. There's Now 3,500 Unionized Microsoft Workers (aftermath.site)
- Reference: 0178961036
- News link: https://it.slashdot.org/story/25/09/01/0413204/blizzards-diablo-devs-unionize-theres-now-3500-unionized-microsoft-workers
- Source link: https://aftermath.site/diablo-union-activision-blizzard-microsoft-cwa-layoffs
> The Diablo team is the next in line to unionize at Blizzard. Over 450 developers across multiple disciplines have voted to form a union under the Communications Workers of America (CWA), and they're now the fourth major Blizzard team to do so... A wave of unions have formed at Blizzard in the last year, including the [2]World of Warcraft , [3]Overwatch , and Story and Franchise Development teams. Elsewhere at Microsoft, [4]Bethesda , ZeniMax Online Studios and [5]ZeniMax QA testers have also unionized...
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> The CWA says over 3,500 Microsoft workers have now organized to fight for fair compensation, job security, and improved working conditions.
CWA is America's largest communications and media labor union, and [6]in a statement , local 9510 president Jason Justice called the successful vote "part of a much larger story about turning the tide in an industry that has long overlooked its labor. Entertainment workers across film, television, music, and now video games are standing together to have a seat at the table. The strength of our movement comes from that solidarity."
And CWA local 6215 president Ron Swaggerty said "Each new organizing effort adds momentum to the nationwide movement for video game worker power."
"What began as a trickle has turned into an avalanche," [7]writes the gaming news site Aftermath , calling the latest vote "a direct result of the union neutrality deal Microsoft struck with CWA in 2022 when it was facing regulatory scrutiny over its $68.7 billion purchase of Activision Blizzard."
> We've come a long way since small units at Raven and Blizzard Albany [8]fended off Activision Blizzard's pre-acquisition attempts at union busting in 2022 and 2023, and not a moment too soon: Microsoft's [9]penchant for mass layoffs has cut some teams to the bone and left others warily counting down the days until their heads land on the chopping block. This new union, workers hope, will act as a bulwark...
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> [B]ased on preliminary conversations with prospective members, they can already hazard a few guesses as to what they'll be arm-wrestling management over at the bargaining table: pay equity, AI, crediting, and remote work.
[1] https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/fed-up-with-living-in-fear-of-mass-layoffs-diablo-designers-take-action-against-microsoft-we-are-ready-to-begin-fighting-for-real-change/
[2] https://www.pcgamer.com/games/mmo/blizzards-world-of-warcraft-team-has-unionized/
[3] https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/nearly-200-overwatch-developers-at-blizzard-form-a-new-union-the-overwatch-gamemakers-guild/
[4] https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/bethesda-game-studios-developers-form-wall-to-wall-union-with-241-members/
[5] https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/zenimax-qa-union-reaches-a-tentative-contract-agreement-with-microsoft-including-substantial-across-the-board-wage-increases-worker-protections-and-more/
[6] https://cwa-union.org/news/releases/hundreds-diablo-game-developers-join-communications-workers-america
[7] https://aftermath.site/diablo-union-activision-blizzard-microsoft-cwa-layoffs
[8] https://cwa-union.org/news/releases/national-labor-relations-board-finds-merit-charges-against-blizzard-illegal-union
[9] https://aftermath.site/xbox-layoffs-july
Cool (Score:2)
Should be a nice boost to indie games ...
Re:Cool (Score:4, Insightful)
Indeed. Everyone knows Bizzard is a sweatshop yet there is no shortage of people who wanted to work there nonetheless....even before being partially unionized. Like everything else organized labor touches, you'll see quality deteriorate and costs increase. That train is never late. Good luck with that.
Damn dude really drank the Kool-Aid there... (Score:2)
Organized labor does not decrease quality management does chasing short-term profits.
I never understand why we blame the guy who turns the bolts for long-term company decisions.
I mean Tesla is not Union and their cars are junk. The cybertruck especially. I was behind one the other day and the rear bumper was noticeably askew. This is an $80,000 luxury vehicle. The world's greatest parking lot princess.
But that's not a union or a non-union issue that's bad engineering to meet unreasonable price ta
Re: (Score:2)
Nonsense. Europe has tons of labor unions and they aren’t churning out garbage. Companies report record profits every quarter and I’m to believe that increasing wages will lead to cost increases?
Morale (Score:3)
Wouldn't it be nice if companies treated people well and we didn't need unions?
Re: (Score:2)
Wouldn't be nice if people treated people well and we didn't need laws?
Well, it would, but let's not discard laws just yet.
Re: (Score:1)
> Wouldn't it be nice if companies treated people well and we didn't need unions?
Companies treated workers well, and Western governments provided a welfare state, because of the menace of the Soviet Union looking as a more attractive option to workers.
Once the Soviet Union imploded ending the Cold War, there were no menace anymore and the ruling class returned to their previous mode of operation, dialling the clock back to the XIX century with it's Dickensian Laissez-faire.
It's only logical that when we go back to the conditions that motivated Socialism, workers bring back the same old
Re: (Score:1)
> which westerners did the soviet union look more attractive to?
Mostly the ones who thought they would benefit from a scheme of "from each according to his ability, to each according to his need" and were not smart enough to realize that socialist planners lack both the knowledge and incentives to do their supposed jobs well.
Re: (Score:2)
> Wouldn't it be nice if companies treated people well and we didn't need unions?
Don't you mean 'if people treated people well'? Its not *companies* that are mistreating people, its people who are focusing on accumulation of capital over the well-being of other people.
[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodity_fetishism [wikipedia.org] - as a reminder, Karl Marx figured this out ages ago. I'm not advocating Communism, whatever that means since everyone seems to have a different idea of what this means, more just bringing it up since its an inherent part of capitalism..
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodity_fetishism
Re: (Score:2)
Personally I think the early communists did a fine job of identifying lots of problems that are evident from observing society and its history. The problem is how easily they transitioned to imagining 'solutions' with essentially no basis in history, economics, human nature, nor anything else for that matter and then proceeded to foist them on humanity.
Realizing that "grandpa has Alzheimer's" is one thing, "so what we need to do is feed him a diet of coconut oil" is another.
Re: (Score:2)
Emplyees are not "people". They are "human resources".
Just another column on a spreadsheet.
Activision deserves a union (Score:2)
When your business treats workers like shit, you deserve a union.
Probably the end of Blizzard (Score:4, Interesting)
Activision will wait a year or three, just long enough so that it’s impossible to legally prove that its a response to the unionization, then theyll alter the cash flows just barely enough so that the Blizzard entity is badly in the red, and close the place down. Im not justifying it, or saying anything at all about unions vs capitalism or right and wrong. Thats a different conversation. But this is whats gonna happen. Game development is a fast moving high churn cut throat business. Not compatible with unions.
Can't wait... (Score:2)
... for PirateSoftware to start attacking this. Sth along the lines of "This is NOT the Blizzard I worked for for 7 years! Jesus!"
With the way Diablo and co have been evolving (Score:1)
It seemed inevitable that their days are numbered, better build up the negotiation power for those retrenchment packages,
Re: (Score:2)
Well over ten years ago, I went to the NLRB website - for you MAGAts out there, that's the US government webside of the National Labor Relations Board - and looked. Corporate regulatory capture had clearly done its job - it was almost *impossible* to for computer professionals, programmers, sysadmins, to form a union.
As a retired programmer and admin, the only thing I ever managed were computers - but I was *always* listed as management and salaried, so could never join.
My first job, I was hired as a sr. pr