Workers at a third studio owned by Activision-Blizzard are planning to organize: Proletariat, which readers may recall was the studio behind battle royale game Spellbreak that was bought out by Blizzard in June specifically to shore up development on World of Warcraft: Dragonflight, has officially announced it is forming its own union.
The recently organized Proletariat Workers Alliance, which falls under the Communications Workers Alliance umbrella with both Raven Software and Blizzard Albany, unveiled the union’s formation and stated its intent to ask management to formally recognize its creation. And this time around, the union covers the entire studio instead of just one department.
“We are game developers of varied skill sets and backgrounds brought together through a shared commitment to our organization’s great mission. We aim to be a beloved game studio with a diverse team, doing our best work and creating innovative experiences at the frontier of game development. We are unionizing to protect this mission and to set the studio up for success as we enter Proletariat’s next chapter joining forces with ABK.”
Those protections mentioned in the statement primarily revolve around ensuring workers get flexible PTO, remote work options, living wages, equitable overtime policies, and diverse hiring practices among other things.
Just like Raven Software before it, the PWA is asking that ABK management “voluntarily recognize [its] union and bargain in good faith” while also referencing Microsoft’s earlier commitment to remain neutral in unionization efforts. “Proletariat has always valued collaboration through mutual dignity, respect, and trust. We will embody these values while working with leadership, enabling us to do our best work and innovate what a game studio can be for its fans and employees,” the union states.
So happy to celebrate @WeArePWA_CWA's union representation election filing! They are the third group of Activision Blizzard workers to join CWA. 😍 https://t.co/0C9WrhEvzR https://t.co/iWg2mkIHlO
— CWA (@CWAUnion) December 27, 2022
