Activision Blizzard's new full-time jobs come with a bit of union busting:
Hours after announcing it would convert over 1,000 temporary and contract QA employees to full time and provide a minimum pay of $20 per hour, Activision Blizzard is stating that Raven Software QA workers will not be part of that deal. According to a report from Bloomberg, the QA testers at Raven Software who recently organized as the Game Workers Alliance will not be able to take advantage of the new pay minimum — something Activision Blizzard failed to mention upfront when it sent the initial news to media outlets. Excluding organizing employees from company-wide benefits seems to be Activision Blizzard's latest move against the burgeoning labor movement going on at the company.
[...] In addition to that statement, Activision Blizzard also provided The Verge with a copy of the email that Brian Raffel, Raven Software studio head, sent out to employees.
[...] The email seems expertly crafted to have a chilling effect on the Game Workers Alliance's continued efforts to establish the company's first union. Phrasing like "through direct dialogue with each other, we improved pay, expanded benefits, and provided professional opportunities" sends the message that organizers' union activities have prevented them from enjoying the benefits the company is extending to others.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 12 2022, @10:10AM (9 children)
Brogrammers and artists are a dime a dozen. QA testers? Get outta here.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 12 2022, @10:45AM
Nah, they don't earn good wages at ActiBlizz either. Only management has competitive wages.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Thexalon on Tuesday April 12 2022, @11:04AM (7 children)
Oh, I thought we were talking about the suits, which in my experience are at least as replaceable as techies, but don't get replaced because they're the ones deciding who will be replaced. Yes, including the ones that are hailed as business geniuses.
Or, in the case of Activision Blizzard, at this point I consider the entire company replaceable.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Tuesday April 12 2022, @12:32PM (4 children)
The suits deal with people.
People who have money.
The techies deal with machines.
Machines people want to buy.
Unfortunately, it takes both to get money to the techie.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Tuesday April 12 2022, @02:16PM (1 child)
I didn't say the suits weren't necessary, just that they're at least as replaceable and disposable as the techies.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Tuesday April 12 2022, @08:43PM
Absolutely!
Neither are disposable.
The techies are usually introverts and focus their energies into building things.
The suits are usually extroverts and focus their energies on social trading.
Both efforts require copious quantities of time
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Freeman on Tuesday April 12 2022, @02:27PM (1 child)
This is why Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak made a dynamic duo. Jobs was the Suit and Wozniak was the brains.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 1) by anubi on Tuesday April 12 2022, @09:03PM
Yes...
I would say that's the primary reason for a lot of failure.
Both have to find and value the other. Both are equally important to the success of the whole. A ying-yang kind of thing. A husband-wife kind of thing. A team.
Invariably, though, we get greedy and one thinks they are more important than the other. The losers in this corporate need to rank everyone also lose motivation and drive. Like the Florida condos whose concrete lost cohesion, the whole structure collapses.
The warning signs usually appear all over the place, but the power men place in having dominion over other men blinds them to what is happening right in front of them.
There is even a little fable that was taught to kids of my generation to illustrate how destructive this meme will be if you follow it. It's called "Killing the goose that lays the Golden Eggs.".
If one is greedy, they won't see the golden egg hidden in the fable.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday April 12 2022, @04:12PM
Suits are MORE replaceable! We just don't notice 'cause they're, y'know, suits..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 12 2022, @05:18PM
I have been working (as a techie) at the same job for 17 years. The techies who first interviewed me for this job all still work here. In that time, there have been 7 CEOs that I can remember, each of whom completely replaced the "leadership team".
Suits are way more replaceable than techies, and way more likely to be replaced, too.
(Score: 2) by Username on Tuesday April 12 2022, @11:33AM (3 children)
If Blizzard pays $20 an hour, why would a different company, Raven, get a raise?
(Score: 4, Informative) by Thexalon on Tuesday April 12 2022, @11:57AM (2 children)
Raven Software is a subsidiary of Activision Blizzard. So yes, they are the same company, they're just trying to punish the people who tried to unionize, which is illegal but not uncommon.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by rpnx on Tuesday April 12 2022, @07:38PM
It's not illegal.
As Blizzard pointed out, they are required by law to negotiate with the union. They cannot unilaterally alter compensation without a new agreement with the union. This applies to any change in compensation period.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Tuesday April 12 2022, @07:45PM
Well then Raven should start their own company! [youtu.be]
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 12 2022, @01:27PM (7 children)
Non-union: Guys, here's a pay raise on which we decided. Hope you like it!
Union: Union negotiations work through representatives and processes, not a random management decision. See you at the negotiating table!
This isn't union-busting, this is awareness of context and future.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 12 2022, @02:19PM
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday April 12 2022, @04:15PM
Well we tried handing out raises once and those greedy fucks have the gall to think they should be recurring!
Give those peons an inch!
(Score: 4, Insightful) by cmdrklarg on Tuesday April 12 2022, @04:29PM (4 children)
If they had treated their employees decently in the first place there wouldn't be a union.
Answer now is don't give in; aim for a new tomorrow.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 12 2022, @04:50PM
That does make this union-busting.
Differential treatment of union and non-union employees isn't union-busting, especially when it's the kind of things about which negotiations would be expected to happen, such as wage rates.
When and if the unionised employees negotiate a contract that determines their wages relative to the wages of others, then this would be relevant. Until then, this is just another day clock-punching.
(Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 12 2022, @07:38PM (2 children)
Unions are, always and everywhere, the creation of management.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 13 2022, @10:37AM (1 child)
Domb shill shilling for the CEO's ...
At east do your research before shilling. This is just embarissingly uninformed.
(Score: 2) by cmdrklarg on Wednesday April 13 2022, @01:50PM
Re-read what the previous AC had posted. They are correct; unions arise because of shitty abusive management. To be exact, bad management is what spurs workers to unionize. Companies that treat employees well don't have to worry about unions.
Answer now is don't give in; aim for a new tomorrow.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 12 2022, @04:35PM
There's a balance to employee / employer / unions. As long as employers treat their employees well, the employees resent paying union dues and the unions remain weak. When the employers abuse the employees, they start to fear the union and attempt to strike it down. In response the union actually becomes more powerful as the employees realize how necessary it is.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by ElizabethGreene on Wednesday April 13 2022, @12:38AM
If the union is worth the dues, its members won't be working for the minimum pay rate. The entire point of collective bargaining is to get a better deal.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 13 2022, @09:49AM
Who are they trying to fool with that one? This company didn't have a shred of QA past D2C.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by zafiro17 on Wednesday April 13 2022, @07:09PM (2 children)
Industry has chipped away steadily at unions and unionization over the past 4 decades. Workers are more disempowered than ever and we see the results of it now when there are no workers willing to work for the wages employers want to pay. We need more empowered workers. If they drive up wages, we'll see if the market cares to pay it.
We've created too many billionaire executives and not enough working families able to scrape by with enough to live on. It's led to polarization of the classes and it's a problem.
Dad always thought laughter was the best medicine, which I guess is why several of us died of tuberculosis - Jack Handey
(Score: 2) by evilcam on Thursday April 14 2022, @02:00AM (1 child)
Agreed, take my mod points.
I live and work in Australia, for a private company, for mostly government clients. I can't stand the government union because the behaviour I have experienced from public sector employees is incredibly lacklustre. The amount of phoning it in at the organisation I currently work in is soul-crushing. Having said that, I totally accept their need to exist, because they provide a crucial safety net for staff. I've belonged to several unions in my life, and the dues were always both minimal, and more than made up for the weekly increase in pay above the minimum wage (which make no mistake is what Woolies would have been paying 17 year old me).
Unions are great, not all the time but they are great more often than corporations are.
I was interested to discover that 'Straya only has 15% of the workforce [abs.gov.au] in a union, which given how large the mining, retail, construction, and public sector is surprised me. It was disheartening to see that the membership has been falling steadily over the last few decades however we're still miles ahead of the US at 10%.
Anyways, seize the means, comrades!
(Score: 2) by deimtee on Saturday April 16 2022, @01:03AM
That was the goal, and is the result, of the Enterprise Bargaining Agreement system. Take the short term loss in paying everyone the same whether they are in the union or not and pretty soon people start just keeping the dues instead of signing up. The end result is actually lower wages because the unions lose power. It's a bit like a 'tragedy of the commons' scenario; if everyone joined the union you would all get better pay and conditions, but the individual can always do a little bit better by opting out.
No problem is insoluble, but at Ksp = 2.943×10−25 Mercury Sulphide comes close.