Activision Blizzard illegally withheld raises from unionizing workers, labor board finds

The National Labor Relations Board found that a gaming company retaliated against workers who formed a union.

The quality assurance department at Raven Software will form a union in January. The union only consists of the 28 employees in the Quality Assurance department, which is why the company wanted to block it. The Game Workers Alliance made history in May when their union vote passed 19- 3. The first official union at a major U.S. gaming company has been established by the GWA.

The minimum wage was raised to $20 per hour while the GWA was in the process of unionizing. Workers at Raven Software were denied wage increases. According to the company, the National Labor Relations Act prevented it from changing the pay rate of its employees. The Communication Workers of America said that this was a lie.

The National Labor Relations Board ruled in favor of the union, saying that it was against the law for the company to not pay workers. The consequences of this finding will affect negotiations over a collective bargaining agreement between the two parties. It can take new unions over a year to get a contract with management.

The attempts to undermine its workers and impede our union election have failed. The GWA said in an email that they are glad the NLRB recognized that the company acted illegally by withholding company-wide benefits and wage increases from workers who organized.

There is an email from a person with a statement.

Due to legal obligations under the National Labor Relations Act, we were not able to institute new pay initiatives at Raven because they would be brand new kinds of compensation changes. The rule that employers shouldn't give wage increases has been in place for a long time.

The National Labor Relations Board is looking into thesolicitation of grievances by the company. Daniel Alegre offered to fly to Wisconsin to speak with workers about their grievances prior to the union vote. This practice is not allowed because it can lead to coercive behavior.

This is not an accurate depiction of events according to a company spokesman. It was not framed as an opportunity to specifically address grievances when Raven was offered a non-mandatory opportunity to meet with leadership. The offer was never taken and a meeting never happened.

Even though Microsoft is buying the company for $68.7 billion, it has been a rough few years for the company. The state of California filed a lawsuit against the company last summer, accusing it of fostering a "frat boy" workplace culture and being a breeding ground for harassment and discrimination against women. According to reports, Bobby Kotick knew for years about sexual harassment and rape at his company, but he didn't do anything about it. Kotick may not step down until after the Microsoft acquisition closes, if at all, because of the ongoing SEC investigations and sexual harassment scandals in his company.

A group of Activision Blizzard workers vote to unionize