ABetterABK asks CEO Bobby Kotick if he will recognize a union of Activision Blizzard workers
Things are heating up in the battle for workers rights at Activision Blizzard, with the ABetterABK movement asking CEO Bobby Kotick if he is ready to recognize a union.
The employees at Activision Blizzard have been engaging in a public dialogue with the company's management over the past few months, and things are certainly heating up. Earlier today, the ABetterABK ABK Workers Alliance tweeted a question to Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick asking if he is "prepared to voluntarily recognize a union." Check out the full tweet embedded below.
Bobby Kotick, Given your visible stance to bettering ABK and the working conditions within for the benefit of your employees, are you prepared to voluntarily recognize a union formed by those workers, so that they can hold you accountable to your commitments?
— ABetterABK 💙 ABK Workers Alliance (@ABetterABK) October 30, 2021
This escalation of the current labor dispute at the massive third-party game development company comes on the back of several bits of news for the movement. Bobby Kotick requested that his salary be lowered to $62,500 until the workplace culture improves earlier this week. This news broke the same day as the company waived worker arbitration for Activision Blizzard employees, in a win for the ABetterABK movement.
The ABetterABK Twitter account put out a statement on the arbitration win. Here's a transcription of the entire tweet thread:
As ABetterABK said today on Twitter, it appears that Kotick has certainly been saying the right things lately, but the CEO must be held accountable for these commitments. The formation of a union at Activision Blizzard would be a huge breakthrough for the video game industry, and this movement for employee rights goes beyond their company to other studios like Ubisoft, as they mention in the above tweet thread.
The #ActiBlizzWalkout organizers are encouraging people to signal boost the hashtag as a sign of solidarity while using a 💙 emoji. They also support donations to the following charities:
— Shacknews (@shacknews) July 28, 2021
@BlackGirlsCode
@WithoutViolence
@GirlsWhoCode
@RAINN
@wia_animation @GETWIGI pic.twitter.com/FtsbGARUsd
The ABetterABK Activision Blizzard Workers Alliance asks that people consider donating to charities in support of their cause. Their demands are simple and it shouldn't be hard for companies with billions of dollars in profits like Activision Blizzard to implement a plan to make employees feel safer at work. It appears that the workers still doubt that their CEO Bobby Kotick will actually do anything meaningful, and a unionization push could put the heat on. Only time will tell where this all goes from here, but we support all developers fighting for their rights.
Keep it locked on Shacknews next week as Activision Blizzard (ATVI) is set to report their earnings results and one would have to believe that the topic of the employee union will come up on the conference call.
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