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Workplace

CWA is charging Activision Blizzard with violating labor laws

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Activision Blizzard doesn't seem committed to lasting change.
Photo: Allen J. Schaben/Getty Images

The Communications Workers of America (CWA) filed unfair labor charges against gaming giant Activision Blizzard for worker intimidation on Monday, alleging the company has tried to squash organizing efforts in the wake of an ongoing discrimination and sexual assault scandal.

Activision Blizzard is currently battling a lawsuit from the state of California that says the company fostered a toxic workplace and allowed repeated discrimination and sexual harassment. After the state first filed the suit, countless workers came forward with stories of pay discrimination, abuse and harassment. While Blizzard's former president J. Allen Brack resigned in the immediate wake of the lawsuit, current company leaders have not committed to any lasting cultural changes.

The charges from the CWA — filed on behalf of workers at the company pushing for change through a campaign calling itself "A Better ABK" — allege Activision Blizzard has used "coercive tactics" to try to prevent employees from organizing for a workplace free of abuse, acts which are protected from retaliation under federal labor laws. Lawyers for CWA wrote in the charge sheet that Activision Blizzard "has threatened employees that they cannot talk about or communicate about wages, hours and working conditions" and "told employees they cannot communicate with or discuss ongoing investigations of wages, hours and working conditions," as well as surveilled and questions workers about their organizing.

Activision Blizzard did not immediately respond to request for comment.

Anna Kramer

Anna Kramer is a reporter at Protocol (Twitter: @ anna_c_kramer, email: akramer@protocol.com), where she writes about labor and workplace issues. Prior to joining the team, she covered tech and small business for the San Francisco Chronicle and privacy for Bloomberg Law. She is a recent graduate of Brown University, where she studied International Relations and Arabic and wrote her senior thesis about surveillance tools and technological development in the Middle East.

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