More than 450 Diablo developers at Blizzard Entertainment unionized with the Communications Workers of America (CWA), representing designers, engineers, artists, and support staff. The unionization followed multiple rounds of layoffs in Microsoft's gaming division and broader industry-wide cuts, which increased fear among workers. Other Microsoft teams have also organized with the CWA, including a group that reached a contract after two years of negotiations and the Story and Franchise Development team. The CWA reports over 3,500 Microsoft workers have organized, and video game workers formed the United Videogame Workers-CWA for the US and Canada.
More than 450 Diablo developers at Blizzard Entertainment to unionize with the Communications Workers of America (CWA). The union will represent employees across multiple disciplines including designers, engineers, artists and support staff. This comes after a slew of layoffs in the gaming division at Microsoft, Blizzard's parent company, as well as across the industry at large. The Diablo team isn't the first to unionize at the tech giant.
workers reached a union contract with Microsoft after two years of negotiations, and Story and Franchise Development team voted to unionize earlier this month. Both are part of the CWA, which also helped the unionize earlier this summer.
Kelly Yeo, a Diablo game producer and organizing committee member, that the mass layoffs at Microsoft were a major motivating factor in the unionization. "With every subsequent round of mass layoffs, I've witnessed the dread in my coworkers grow stronger because it feels like no amount of hard work is enough to protect us," she said. "This is just the first step for us joining a movement spreading across an industry that is tired of living in fear." CWA says that more than 3,500 Microsoft workers have organized with the union. Earlier this year, video game workers announced the formation of the United Videogame Workers-CWA, an industry-wide union for workers in the US and Canada.
#unionization #blizzard-entertainment #communications-workers-of-america #layoffs #video-game-industry
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