Activision Blizzard’s Overwatch team has formed a wall-to-wall union under the Communications Workers of America (CWA). The union, which has been recognized by parent company Microsoft, includes nearly 200 developers “across all disciplines,” from design and production to quality assurance, the CWA said in its announcement. It’s the latest development in a broader organizing effort by video game workers, who aim to secure better job protections and improve their working conditions. Last summer, the team behind World of Warcraft announced its own union comprising more than 500 employees, and quality assurance workers at Activision joined the CWA a few months before that.
Per the CWA’s announcement on Friday, “A neutral arbitrator confirmed today that an overwhelming majority of workers have either signed a union authorization card or indicated that they wanted union representation via an online portal.” Members of the new Overwatch Gamemakers Guild-CWA join over 2,000 workers from other studios owned by Microsoft who have unionized with the CWA. “Unionizing is about having a seat at the table so that we can work with leadership to build better, more sustainable working conditions,” said Jess Castillo, senior test analyst II and organizing committee member, in a statement.
