Communications Workers of America Files Additional Unfair Labor Practice Charges Against Activision

The Communications Workers of America (CWA) today filed an unfair labor practice charge against Activision for discriminating and retaliating against workers at its Raven Software studio.

The charge stems from the company's layoff of 12 Quality Assurance testers in December, 2021, its reorganization of its operations to eliminate the Quality Assurance department three days after workers requested union recognition in January, 2022, and its withholding of pay raises and other benefits in April, 2022.

"The reorganization and withholding of pay raises and other benefits and the company's failure to rehire laid off QA testers were clearly attempts by Activision to intimidate us and interfere with our union election in violation of the National Labor Relations Act," said Game Workers Alliance/CWA organizing committee members Erin Hall, Lau Nebel-Malone, and Marie Carroll. "We are holding Activision accountable by filing these charges. We are also calling on Activision to respect employees' legal right to choose to join a union and collectively bargain by adopting principles like those Microsoft announced yesterday. Other Activision workers who want to join our union should not face this kind of harassment."

The Raven workers won recognition for their union, Game Workers Alliance/CWA, on May 23, with an 86% majority vote.

This is the third charge CWA has filed against Activision. Last month, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) found merit with a charge filed by CWA in September, 2021, determining that Activision illegally threatened staff and enforced a social media policy that silenced workers. (Link to Bloomberg story). CWA filed a second charge against Activision in April, 2022, for telling workers that they could not discuss issues related to the sexual harassment and discrimination lawsuit filed by state of California against the company.

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