Activision Blizzard employees strike for third week in solidarity with Raven QA

NME

Employees making up the ABK (Activision Blizzard King) Workers Alliance are going into their third week of strikes in solidarity with the Raven Software QA layoffs.

• READ MORE: What the hell has happened at Activision and why should you care?

As announced by the ABK Twitter account yesterday (January 4), employees across the company are continuing to strike in solidarity with the Raven Software QA staff hit with surprise layoffs towards the end of last year.

ABetterABK published a letter containing the following on Twitter:

“Today is the start of the third work week in which employees are striking in solidarity with 12 members of QA whose contracts were terminated. We have not had any communication from leadership about our singular demand: All members of the Raven QA department must be offered full time positions, including those who were let go.”

The letter also adds what ABK would like to discuss, including:

• The details of their demands
• expectations from both sides
• relocation packages for those who moved to Wisconsin
• The context of the situation from the leadership’s side
• Leadership’s goals for Raven’s QA department

Today is the third week in which employees across the company are striking in solidarity with Raven QA in response to surprise layoffs. Having had no response from our leadership, Raven QA sent the following letter earlier today. #WeAreRaven pic.twitter.com/e9AjbpuiJN

— ABetterABK ABK Workers Alliance (@ABetterABK) January 4, 2022

The letter, addressed from Raven QA, demands a conversation with leadership about the demands.

This follows news in early December that Raven Software employees would stage a walkout in protest of the layoffs, as workers were promised more permanent positions which they moved for, and are considered “essential” by their colleagues.

Following this, Activision Blizzard workers began a bid for unionisation. Executives at Activision Blizzard previously warned that staff should “consider the consequences” of unionising. Organiser of the fund Jessica Gonzales – who resigned from the company and industry last year – called the statement “union busting”.

In other news, Activision has filed a lawsuit against a website that provides players with cheats for video games. The publisher says the website in question has caused Activision to suffer “massive and irreparable damage to its goodwill and reputation”.

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