if anyone there happens to be reading wowhead, $%^&ing do ittake from them everything
Unions are almost always a better situation for the employees than not, as someone with half a lifetime of experience in both unionized and non-unionized workplaces. The thing is that you need to have people in the labor force who are smart and capable and willing to sacrifice a fair amount of time to working for the union, as well as their job--as well as able to negotiate compassionately and without embarking on an ego trip of their own. (In creative/white collar jobs--it's a bit different in blue collar unions, where unions tend to be much more established.)
People don't realize that if the game industry were to unionize just how much better everything will be in the long run.Not just for the employees, but for the players as well.
They should do it. Unionize guys! ABK, you deserve the worker protections. Take the power back from your over-orcs.
Brian is just using CIA mind games to try and union bust. PERIOD
I really hope they unionize.I'm a former 6-year (2015-2021) member of CWA (Communications Workers of America, the union ABK Workers Alliance is associating with), and being in CWA was the best thing that could've happened to me at my last job. Saved my job from getting either let go for small things that weren't even my fault, or from getting laid off. Also, and for me, more importantly, helped me deal with a manager that had harassed me to the point where eventually I had to start seeing a psychiatrist.From the looks of things though, if they successfully vote to unionize, the ABK Workers' Alliance will become members of CWA's "CODE" Division ("Campaign to Organize Digital Employees"), which focuses on employees in both tech companies, and game studios. They'll be members of CODE-CWA.While I could be wrong about this, I would assume that based on my experience as a CWA member, they'll likely divide up the members into locals based upon their ABK division (Activision would be one, Blizzard another, King another, etc). Then have a "district" that oversees the various locals, which also handles the collective bargaining with ABK management. I could be wrong. They could just do one massive single union without dividing up ABK divisions into locals. Either way, it'll take time; but as members of CWA, they'll get all the support they need to make it happen if the ABK workers decide to ratify and become a union.Good luck, ABK Workers.
Let them unionize and them let them all go, maybe than we could get quality story, and programming.
Ironically, John Oliver did a segment in this show recently about unions in the US and it's pretty bad how companies will try and stop their employees from forming a union. The bottom line, they don't want that happening because it means they can't get away with treating their employees poorly. But even if Blizzard staff do form a union it will still take time to form a contract and knowing Activision Blizzard, they could drag that out for years, if not decades.
As someone from the UK. What is the reason why the corporations dont want unions? Surely if their mission statements are about the 'corporate family' 'in this together' 'every voice matters' 'ethical standards'. Yet they dont want workers to unite together for better working conditions? Surely uniting together is the best way of 'ever voice mattering'. Or is it that they know unions will cost them money to pay better benefits etc. so thats ultimately all they care about.
The fact that executives feel the need to caution employees away from unionizing means it scares them. Workers are so much more powerful than their bosses when they band together.
Unionization is an excellent thing and I only wish more employees in the US were unionized. Those who are anti-union are either A: Just crazy, B: A suit themselves, or C: Bought into anti-union propaganda. If they unionize, it's the worst possible outcome for Activision's c-suite.
Unions are always a good thing. Fullstop.Anyone who says otherwise is only looking to exploit and abuse workers.
Disclaimer - I'm a former CWA member, from January 2015 to August 2021. I've been through 2 contract negotiations as a general member of the union. One of which, the 2016 contract, took well over a year for the bargaining to finish, and we continued to work under the terms of the expired contract until the new contract was finalized and ratified by the members.
Never, ever, believe the words of management, “H.R.”, or the company’s lawyers, when they say anything about unions.Their primary goal in any such discussion is to do whatever they can to prevent workers from unionizing because a union would mean the corporation would have less ability to exploit the workers. So, management will bring out every scare tactic they can come up with to try to convince the workers of the lie that unionization would somehow make things worse for the workers. They will not hesitate to outright lie, and even break the law, in trying to stop unionization or break an existing union, because they see unions as among the biggest threats to their power.As long as there are bosses, there had better be unions.That said, if you don’t want unions, just get rid of the bosses by incorporating as worker co-operatives—a much better form of organizing a business.