Based in Boston game studio proletariat It announced plans to form a union on Tuesday.If successful, about 60 employees world of warcraftOf new dragon flight Expansion will join the ranks of organized workers Entire Parent Company Activision Blizzard from.
The group, called the Proletariat Workers Alliance, is in union with the Communications Workers of America and says it has overwhelming support among the studio’s qualified staff. While we are petitioning the National Labor Relations Commission for union elections, we are calling on Activision Blizzard to voluntarily recognize the union in its farewell to the union. call of duty publisher’s attempt stall and sabotage Other studios are doing the same.
“Everyone in the video game industry knows Activision Blizzard’s reputation for creating a hostile work environment, so when we heard earlier this year that Blizzard was planning to acquire Proletariat, we were We started talking about how we can protect the amazing culture we’ve created here,” said Dustin Yost, software engineer at the studio. said in a press release“By forming unions and negotiating contracts, we will be able to continue to do our best work at the forefront of game development and create innovative experiences.”
The Proletariat Workers Alliance is unique among gaming unions because it represents all non-managing staff at the studio, not just quality assurance staff, as is the case with Raven Software, Blizzard Albany, and unionization efforts. In progress at Microsoft’s Bethesda studioFlexible paid leave, optional remote work, no mandatory overtime, diversity, equality and inclusion were among the demands the developers of the proletariat will negotiate at the bargaining table if the trade union push is successful. It lists policies that promote
Activision Blizzard did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether it would voluntarily recognize the union or try to fight it.the publisher Recently tried to stop Blizzard Albany’s union Because allowing only QA to be organized hurts the development of games such as Diablo IVUltimately, the NLRB didn’t buy it, but in the case of Proletariat, these concerns are moot anyway, as a studio-wide vote is exactly what workers want.
the proletariat Established in 2012 It is from the former developers of Zynga, Insomniac Games and Harmonix and is funded by venture capital and investments from companies such as Take-Two.The most famous release before joining Blizzard was spell breakis a free-to-play magic shooter that debuted in 2020. Closed in June of this yearbut the proletariat was acquired to work on world of warcraft next month.
James Van Nuland, Associate Game Producer at Proletariat, said: “We are together.”