The dismissals of temporary Raven Software testers did not leave many employees in other Activision Blizzard studios indifferent. To date, more than 200 people have joined the strike. They protest against “arbitrariness” in the workplace and demand the reinstatement of all dismissed.Call of Duty: Warzone
The continuation of the strike was reported by The Washington Post.
Testers from Texas and Minnesota, as well as a number of Blizzard QA specialists decided to support their colleagues.
The A Better ABK Workers Alliance (Activision Blizzard King) later reported that the entire main Treyarch QA team had joined the protests.
In an unprecedented show of love and solidarity, all of Treyarch’s central QA has walked out. Thank you, for your devotion to your peers and bettering this industry. #WeareRaven #ABetterABK
— ABetterABK ????ABK Workers Alliance (@ABetterABK) December 7, 2021The strike itself takes place in a virtual format using the hashtag #WeAreRaven.
On Tuesday, the studio staff also informed the management that they would come to work in the office “as a sign of solidarity with their comrades in the QA department who were arbitrarily dismissed.”
“It feels like Activision’s toxic culture is starting to seep into Raven. The dismissed people seem to have been chosen completely by chance, and all the remaining ones now feel guilty. We know that our teammates deserve to stay here,” said one of the studio’s testers in a conversation with The Washington Post.
So far, the protesters are not going to stop the strike. They demand that the company’s management not only reinstate all dismissed contract workers, but also offer them employment in the state.
In response to this , Activision Blizzard stated: “We support the right of employees to express their opinions and concerns in any safe and respectful way without fear of consequences.”
On Monday, the head of Raven Software, Brian Raffel, noted that he did not consider the situation to be dismissals — the studio simply did not extend the temporary contracts of some employees. At the same time, he apologized to the employees and said that the studio should have built better communication.
On December 3, Raven Software fired 12 testers who worked on temporary contracts. Previously, they were promised raises and employment in the state. As a result, the actions of the management provoked a strike.
Activision Blizzard itself noted that in total it had to cut 20 temporary employees. She did this to transfer 500 contract workers to the staff.