The first group of workers to unionize at an Activision Blizzard subsidiary has ratified their inaugural labor deal.
A group of quality assurance testers at the Wisconsin-based studio Raven Software has voted unanimously to support a tentative contract deal, the Communications Workers of America union announced Monday. The contract enshrines wage increases, “crunch time” protections and promotions and layoff processes.
Based in Middleton, Wisconsin, Raven Software has recently worked on multiple titles within the Call of Duty franchise. It’s also known for Heretic, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force and Star Wars Jedi Knight: Knight Academy. The union’s bargaining unit includes 19 quality assurance workers.
“After more than three years of organizing and bargaining, seeing it finally pay off feels incredible,” bargaining committee member Erin Hall said in a statement. “It’s a contract that actually values the work QA does.”
The new deal increases union members’ wages by a minimum of 10 percent over two years, the union said on Monday. The contract attempts to regulate so-called “crunch time” — when video game workers are required to work vast amounts of overtime to meet a project deadline — by requiring that the studio give workers at least a week’s advance notice before any mandatory overtime and offer flexibility on scheduling that overtime. The deal additionally bars the studio from scheduling mandatory overtime during the majority of weeks in a single quarter. Also enshrined are job descriptions, disability accommodations, a promotions procedure and a layoffs process.
The Raven Software workers made headlines in January 2022 when they announced that they were attempting to form a union with the backing of the Communications Workers of America. Though CWA had previously won a union at the indie studio Vodeo Games (now defunct), the Raven Software effort marked the first time that the recent video-game organizing movement tested a AAA company.
Though Activision Blizzard declined to voluntarily recognize the group, union organizers ultimately prevailed in a National Labor Relations Board election later that year.