Activision Quality Assurance Workers Have Formed The Largest Video Game Union In The Country

According to The Verge, around 600 workers from Activision Publishing's quality assurance department have recently formed a union, named Activision Quality Assurance United – CWA. They did so with assistance from the Communications Workers of America. This is the largest video game union in the United States, and paints quite the picture with the growing trend of workers in the industry losing their jobs in batches seemingly every other week now.

The unionization effort was facilitated by a labor neutrality agreement between Microsoft and the CWA (established in 2022) to ease the process of organizing at Microsoft and its subsidiaries, which now means Activision Blizzard. Tom Shelley, one of the organizers, said that Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard hastened their goals of unionization. 

In case you weren’t familiar, quality assurance workers often face low pay and weak protections, despite the integral role their work plays — of course. The formation of this union is not just a win for these teams, but hopefully a start towards improving labor conditions in the industry as a whole.

Note: Activision Blizzard has been sued by California’s Civil Rights Department, alleging violations of California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act and Equal Pay Act. CEO Bobby Kotick is alleged to have known about the alleged violations within his company. These allegations have all been denied by Activision Blizzard and the company points to additional diversity and inclusion training as past examples of taking the accusations seriously at the time they were made. This case has been settled for $54 million.