Blizzard Albany QA Testers Win the Right to Vote for Unionization

Quality assurance testers at Blizzard Albany, the studio formerly known as Vicarious Visions, who work on the upcoming Diablo IV and Diablo II: Resurrected, have won the right to form a union, it was revealed on Tuesday.

As reported by The Washington Post, in August, the testers at the studio argued in front of the board that they should be allowed to form their own union. However, Activision Blizzard reportedly attempted to bust the union effort claiming that voting should take place among all employees of the studio, and not just the QA team.

Blizzard Albany QA workers' signed a petition to the US National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and now it has been accepted. The NLRB ultimately disagreed with Activision and ruled out that testers are in a separate working group from developers, and therefore are determined by different rights and regulations. 

Now, the group of the studio's QA testers has the right to vote for the formation of the union – ballots will be sent out on October 27 and the results of this vote are expected as early as 18 November, as Kotaku reports.

Activision responded to the NLRB's decision via a statement posted to the company's internal Slack which was later shared publicly on Twitter by former employee and ABetterABK workers group founder Jessica Gonzalez.

In the statement, Activision's newly-appointed executive vice president for corporate affairs and chief communications officer Lulu Cheng Meservey said that the company respects the NLRB's decision, however, Activision believes that it is not the best outcome for the company.

"We disagree that a handful of employees should get to decide for everyone else on the future of the entire Albany-based Diablo team," Meservey wrote. "We think a direct dialogue between company and employees is the most productive route."

It is likely that the testers will vote to form a union, and then Activision Blizzard will have to recognize it and enter into negotiations similar to the Raven union.

Activision announced that it recognized the union formed by Raven Software's QA workers and said that it would start negotiations with it in June this year. In early October, it was reported that the company withheld raises from the testers who formed the union, citing their union activity.

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