Blizzard's 'Diablo' Devs Unionize. There's Now 3,500 Unionized Microsoft Workers (aftermath.site) 68
PC Gamer reports:
The Diablo team is the next in line to unionize at Blizzard. Over 450 developers across multiple disciplines have voted to form a union under the Communications Workers of America (CWA), and they're now the fourth major Blizzard team to do so... A wave of unions have formed at Blizzard in the last year, including the World of Warcraft, Overwatch, and Story and Franchise Development teams. Elsewhere at Microsoft, Bethesda, ZeniMax Online Studios and ZeniMax QA testers have also unionized...
The CWA says over 3,500 Microsoft workers have now organized to fight for fair compensation, job security, and improved working conditions.
CWA is America's largest communications and media labor union, and in a statement, local 9510 president Jason Justice called the successful vote "part of a much larger story about turning the tide in an industry that has long overlooked its labor. Entertainment workers across film, television, music, and now video games are standing together to have a seat at the table. The strength of our movement comes from that solidarity."
And CWA local 6215 president Ron Swaggerty said "Each new organizing effort adds momentum to the nationwide movement for video game worker power."
"What began as a trickle has turned into an avalanche," writes the gaming news site Aftermath, calling the latest vote "a direct result of the union neutrality deal Microsoft struck with CWA in 2022 when it was facing regulatory scrutiny over its $68.7 billion purchase of Activision Blizzard." We've come a long way since small units at Raven and Blizzard Albany fended off Activision Blizzard's pre-acquisition attempts at union busting in 2022 and 2023, and not a moment too soon: Microsoft's penchant for mass layoffs has cut some teams to the bone and left others warily counting down the days until their heads land on the chopping block. This new union, workers hope, will act as a bulwark...
[B]ased on preliminary conversations with prospective members, they can already hazard a few guesses as to what they'll be arm-wrestling management over at the bargaining table: pay equity, AI, crediting, and remote work.
The CWA says over 3,500 Microsoft workers have now organized to fight for fair compensation, job security, and improved working conditions.
CWA is America's largest communications and media labor union, and in a statement, local 9510 president Jason Justice called the successful vote "part of a much larger story about turning the tide in an industry that has long overlooked its labor. Entertainment workers across film, television, music, and now video games are standing together to have a seat at the table. The strength of our movement comes from that solidarity."
And CWA local 6215 president Ron Swaggerty said "Each new organizing effort adds momentum to the nationwide movement for video game worker power."
"What began as a trickle has turned into an avalanche," writes the gaming news site Aftermath, calling the latest vote "a direct result of the union neutrality deal Microsoft struck with CWA in 2022 when it was facing regulatory scrutiny over its $68.7 billion purchase of Activision Blizzard." We've come a long way since small units at Raven and Blizzard Albany fended off Activision Blizzard's pre-acquisition attempts at union busting in 2022 and 2023, and not a moment too soon: Microsoft's penchant for mass layoffs has cut some teams to the bone and left others warily counting down the days until their heads land on the chopping block. This new union, workers hope, will act as a bulwark...
[B]ased on preliminary conversations with prospective members, they can already hazard a few guesses as to what they'll be arm-wrestling management over at the bargaining table: pay equity, AI, crediting, and remote work.
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Oh boy...
https://www.politico.com/state... [politico.com]
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Ever since, (and before), this happened [npr.org] in Term #45, DJ Trump's war against the scientists working for the government to measure and regulate has affected me deeply. So I argue here on the slashdots.
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Well over ten years ago, I went to the NLRB website - for you MAGAts out there, that's the US government webside of the National Labor Relations Board - and looked. Corporate regulatory capture had clearly done its job - it was almost *impossible* to for computer professionals, programmers, sysadmins, to form a union.
As a retired programmer and admin, the only thing I ever managed were computers - but I was *always* listed as management and salaried, so could never join.
My first job, I was hired as a sr. pr
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Tech workers in the 90's and 00's came about in a time of rapid transition where their skills were in high demand and supply of professionals was still rather low. If you were in the field things were riding high. "I'm in the 94th percentile of salaries with stock flowing out my ears, why do I need a labor union?". That also combined with the height of neo-conservatism which sit's right next to libertarianism so add a streak of that into the mix and you have a workforce hostile to the concept of collecti
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Sorry, but that's a delusion fostered by the media. I started working in 1980, and was NOT in Silicon Valley. Neither were, I would guess, 90% of all computer professionals. We were in every city, and small town (I can tell you about working for five months in 2006 in North Wilkesboro, NC, as a contractor for Lowe's, a Fortune 50 company, and I'm not sure I was making $70k/yr.) In the mid-nineties, I worked for Ameritech, one of the Baby Bells, outside Chicago, and, let's see, after putting in far, far too
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Interesting, so what would you use to explain the long standing prevalent anti-labor aspect among tech workers?
I would say that they came about in a weak time for labor relations but this sector IME and observation has been downright hostile to the idea.
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No, asshole. When I got back to work, after almost five fucking years of the W Bush recession - most companies won't hire you if you're out of work - try that some time - I think I got up to about 80k or so. Then, since I was now working, I could get a job again. Think that got me up to $85k
Where were you making this money?
And I'm a fucking better programmer than you.
Re: I wish I worked as part of a organized labor U (Score:2)
Re: I wish I worked as part of a organized labor (Score:2)
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As far as the game industry goes, no one forced these people to be game devs. I went through the hiring process at EA back in the day, got an ok offer but learned enough about the gaming vertical during the process to not take it. (I found out later that my mediocre tech offer was actually really high for gaming vertical). It's not a secret and hasn't been for decades that working in gaming sucks. Those people in gaming don't need a union, they need career advisors who will tell them not to go into a shitty vertical. Oh but working at a gaming company is so cool! There's an Xbox and a PS in every break room! Dummies.
This made me do some googling to find out. I always thought game development engineers are paid roughly the same as other software developers. Nope! And the work environments lean towards toxic and with so-so job security. And that isn't necessarily even the fault of the employer, rather all it takes is one poorly received sequel to really screw you over. I can see some saying "oh but the executives rushed the release!" but well, there *could* be a good reason for that. If a bombed release leads to layoffs,
Cool (Score:3)
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Indeed. Everyone knows Bizzard is a sweatshop yet there is no shortage of people who wanted to work there nonetheless....even before being partially unionized. Like everything else organized labor touches, you'll see quality deteriorate and costs increase. That train is never late. Good luck with that.
Damn dude really drank the Kool-Aid there... (Score:3)
I never understand why we blame the guy who turns the bolts for long-term company decisions.
I mean Tesla is not Union and their cars are junk. The cybertruck especially. I was behind one the other day and the rear bumper was noticeably askew. This is an $80,000 luxury vehicle. The world's greatest parking lot princess.
But that's not a union or a non-union issue that's bad engineering to meet unreasonable price ta
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I don't think he has a kid to be honest. Isn't it weird how all of a sudden out of nowhere he talks about it a lot but didn't before? It sounds more like an adult nephew or something similar that moved in with him so they could split their bills. And I'm half tempted to say that he's the one who is transgender but feels like he can't come out IRL for whatever reason. Maybe afraid he would never "pass" because he can't afford any of the cosmetic surgeries that are necessary for that, especially for facial fe
It wasn't all the sudden out of nowhere (Score:2)
Also I'm old enough and smart enough to understand that the government used to pay for college at the rate of about 70% and now it's about 20%.
So I'm pretty pissed off at Boomer trash pulling the ladder up behind them because they're upset they can't say the n word anymore and they don't like queer
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It was when my kid hit college and I suddenly discovered there was absolutely no help whatsoever to pay for the damn thing even though corporate America very much wants my kid to generate profits for them.
Not buying it, mainly because if you or your "kid" had even the slightest idea what you were doing, this wouldn't even be a problem, no matter what your income looks like. But this is a story that gets repeated all too often: People paying too much for college. That expensive school you really want to go to really bad just isn't worth the price. The lower priced school that FAFSA will fully cover (and some) is, however, you're just under the impression that somehow paying more gets you more. It doesn't.
Besi
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Nonsense. Europe has tons of labor unions and they aren’t churning out garbage. Companies report record profits every quarter and I’m to believe that increasing wages will lead to cost increases?
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Europe has tons of labor unions and they aren’t churning out garbage.
I quite like my German car. All the better if the people making it are happy, I would not want a car built by unhappy people. And yes, mine is one of the minority actually still assembled in Germany, but I definitely hope the people building them in Mexico and Spartanburg are happy too.
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Some of them might actually be decent game devs. Overwatch 2's Stadium mode is kinda fun, and the game is (overall) moving in the right direction. Or at least it's holding its own against Marvel Rivals.
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You think Blizzard being a sweatshop increased quality? If not labor unions, what other option should they choose to improve working conditions while maintaining quality?
Morale (Score:3)
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Wouldn't be nice if people treated people well and we didn't need laws?
Well, it would, but let's not discard laws just yet.
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Wouldn't it be nice if companies treated people well and we didn't need unions?
Companies treated workers well, and Western governments provided a welfare state, because of the menace of the Soviet Union looking as a more attractive option to workers.
Once the Soviet Union imploded ending the Cold War, there were no menace anymore and the ruling class returned to their previous mode of operation, dialling the clock back to the XIX century with it's Dickensian Laissez-faire.
It's only logical that when we go back to the conditions that motivated Socialism, workers bring back the same old
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which westerners did the soviet union look more attractive to?
Mostly the ones who thought they would benefit from a scheme of "from each according to his ability, to each according to his need" and were not smart enough to realize that socialist planners lack both the knowledge and incentives to do their supposed jobs well.
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You think employers were nice in the 70s and 80s? You're joking.
Re:Morale (Score:4, Interesting)
Wouldn't it be nice if companies treated people well and we didn't need unions?
Don't you mean 'if people treated people well'? Its not *companies* that are mistreating people, its people who are focusing on accumulation of capital over the well-being of other people.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodity_fetishism [wikipedia.org] - as a reminder, Karl Marx figured this out ages ago. I'm not advocating Communism, whatever that means since everyone seems to have a different idea of what this means, more just bringing it up since its an inherent part of capitalism..
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Realizing that "grandpa has Alzheimer's" is one thing, "so what we need to do is feed him a diet of coconut oil" is another.
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Emplyees are not "people". They are "human resources".
Just another column on a spreadsheet.
Activision deserves a union (Score:3)
Probably the end of Blizzard (Score:5, Interesting)
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Sportsball (all flavors) are fast moving high churn cut throat businesses. Unions abound among them. Their owners still end up being billionaires.
Movies bla bla bla cut throat, yet SAG and Directors and gaffers and grips and key and etc often are guilded or unionized. Right now, I hear a lot about how the system has shifted until careers are challenging... but they'd be worse without their unions and the unions are their only hope in renormalizing to a living-wage thing.
Your point is invalid.
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My current job is adjacent to TV and film production and I ask the IATSE folks if they support their union and so by my own anecdotal survey of about 2 dozen people in that field they are pretty ardent supporters. Some definitely have issues but they prefer not to. One time stands out in particular as a couple of the old timers were explaining, rather forcefully, to some youngsters why they feel that way and the importance of it, especially as he pointed out how much they were making in overtime.
That said
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That's not true.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/u... [cbsnews.com]
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If that were the case, then every CEO should get 5 hours of sleep a night and report daily to the rack for a short bout of torture. I mean, how else can they possibly make the business thrive?
Unions and capitalism can survive and thrive together... people need to quit proferring ths binary choice.
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Workers' right to unionize is not a right-wing vs left-wing issue.
It literally is. You're thinking about the other right-left axis.
Can't wait... (Score:2)
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Does anyone even pay attention to him anymore?
With the way Diablo and co have been evolving (Score:1)
No leverage (Score:2)
These folks are about to find out why having leverage is essential to a union's survival. Literally nobody NEEDS Diablo. I have to admire the chutzpah of government unions because they always get what they want. Meanwhile, the taxpayers footing the bill have zero leverage.
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Nobody needs TV shows or movies, but there are unions for the people who work on such things.
The Starcraft team too (Score:2)
The Starcraft team has been unionized for some years now. At least that's what the only person on the team says. We appreciate you, Blizzard intern!