Activision employee strike ended pending recognition of new union

Employees at the Raven Software – one of the teams behind Call Of Duty –  quality assurance (QA) department started striking in December after mass layoffs from management. After more than a month and news that the staff would be unionising, it has been announced that the strike is over.

“Pending the recognition of our union,” began the ABK Workers Alliance, “the Raven QA strike has ended. Unused strike funds are being stored for future organising/strike efforts.”

The group has asked to be recognised under its new union, Game Workers Alliance (GWA), and it is currently pending a response from leadership. “Either positive or negative,” added ABK, “we are acting in good faith and asking for good faith.”

This does not mean the end of action from ABK and GWA, as, despite the recent Microsoft acquisition of Activision Blizzard, the group will continue in its work. “The news of Activision’s acquisition by Microsoft is surprising but does not change the goals of the ABK Workers Alliance.

“We remain committed to fighting for workplace improvements and the rights of our employees regardless of who is financially in control of the company,” continues the statement. “Three out of four of our original collective demands to improve the conditions of women in our workforce have not been met.”

NME has contacted the Game Workers Alliance for a statement and update on what’s next following the strike. We’ll update the story accordingly should we get a response.

In other news, a Dark Souls 3 hack could impact the upcoming Elden Ring if Bandai Namco doesn’t implement a fix in time. Whilst no bad actors appear to have used the exploit yet, it may just be a matter of time before they do.