Written by Dante Uzel on 25 July 2024 11:36
Over 500 employees at Blizzard Entertainment have united under the World of Warcraft Game Makers Guild (WoWGG-CWA), forming a wall-to-wall union at the Microsoft-owned studio, confirmed by the Communications Workers of America (CWA).
The WoWGG-CWA includes the entire World of Warcraft development team, encompassing designers, engineers, artists, quality assurance testers. Simultaneously, another unit of 60 Blizzard QA testers in Austin, Texas, known as Texas Blizzard QA United-CWA, has also formed.
This milestone comes as a result of a seismic Labor Neutrality Agreement established in 2022, which allowed employees to organize without interference. The agreement, initially struck for Microsoft employees at ZeniMax, facilitated nearly 250 workers at Bethesda Game Studios to unionize earlier this week.
More:Warner Bros. Acquires Player First Games
The CWA stated that they view Blizzard's latest union as a significant achievement in a journey that began with employee protests and walkouts at Blizzard Entertainment HQ in California in 2021. Prior to Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard, QA staff at Raven Software and Blizzard Albany successfully organized despite reported interference. Additionally, in January 2023, over 300 QA workers at Bethesda voted to unionize, marking the first union formation within Microsoft.
Post-merger efforts have continued with approximately 600 QA workers at Activision Blizzard forming the largest certified union in U.S. video game history, known as AQAU-CWA, in March 2024.
Tags: World of Warcraft
Related news
