Stocks drop again, dragging the S&P 500 to its biggest weekly loss in nearly two years. The President is more optimistic about US economy despite slower growth and lower stock prices.
Stocks dropped again, dragging the S&P 500 to its biggest weekly loss in nearly two years. Investors are worried that the market is due for a correction and will be more concerned about the outlook of earnings.
Raven Software was involved in the development of Activision’s well-known Call of Duty video game. Credit… Reuters/Carlo Allegri
A handful of employees at Raven Software, a firm owned by Activision Blizzard, said on Friday that they were organizing a union and that they wanted Activision Blizzard to recognize it voluntarily.
The Game Workers Alliance claims to represent more than 80% of the 34 employees employed at Raven’s quality assurance section, which assists in the development of Activision’s blockbuster Call of Duty game. More than 60 Raven employees went on strike in early December, protesting the company’s unexpected and unjust termination of the contracts of a dozen temporary Raven quality assurance personnel. Since then, some people have gone on strike.
Erin Hall, a Raven quality assurance worker who helped establish the union, stated, “This is absolutely the greatest thing for us and our organization moving ahead, for us to have a voice.” She expressed the expectation that unionizing would lead to improved job security and that the Game Workers Alliance would be “simply the first domino at Activision.”
“I believe the fact that unionization in the games business hasn’t really occurred yet motivates a lot of us,” Ms. Hall said.
Activision officials must now decide whether to voluntarily recognize the union or trigger a vote among workers, which would be overseen by the National Labor Relations Board. In a statement, Activision said it was “seriously examining” the proposal.
“While we feel that a direct connection between the firm and its team members provides the best work force prospects,” the company stated in a statement, “we profoundly respect the legal rights of all workers to make their own choices about whether or not to join a union.” In recent years, Activision has raised compensation, time off, and medical benefits for unionizing employees.
Activision, which Microsoft said on Tuesday that it will purchase for about $70 billion, has been plagued by employee dissatisfaction for months. Employees had been pressing for labor organization and improved treatment since July, when a California employment agency sued Activision, accusing it of creating a culture where women were sexually harassed and discriminated against on a regular basis.
Jessica Gonzalez, a former Activision employee and one of the organizers of ABetterABK, a group of activists formed in the aftermath of the lawsuit to improve working conditions at Activision and its Blizzard and King divisions, said she hoped the Raven union, despite its small size, would galvanize more labor efforts at the company, which employs about 10,000 people.
“I believe it will have an impact throughout the sector,” Ms. Gonzalez said. “I’m hopeful the rest of ABK will join us in our purpose and assist us further this movement.”
In contrast to Europe, unions are uncommon in the gaming sector in North America. Employees in the United States are often exposed to surprise layoffs and grueling “crunch,” in which they are made to work long hours and weekends for weeks at a time to guarantee that games meet deadlines.
In recent years, organizations such as Game Workers Unite, Game Workers of Southern California, and the Campaign to Organize Digital Employees, an initiative of the Communications Workers of America, have all worked to organize gaming employees.
Workers at Vodeo Games, an indie game company with approximately a dozen employees, formed the first video game studio union in North America in December.
C.W.A., a famous digital, media, and communications union, led the Raven workers’ organizing drive.
“A collective bargaining agreement will offer Raven QA staff a voice at work, enhancing the games they generate and strengthening the firm,” C.W.A. secretary-treasurer Sara Steffens said in a statement. “The reasonable path ahead is voluntary acknowledgement.”
C.W.A. and the Game Employees Alliance accused Activision of utilizing “monitoring and intimidation measures, including hiring infamous union busters, to suppress workers,” according to a press statement announcing the union.
Ms. Hall and C.W.A. both suggested the timing was coincidental, considering Microsoft’s massive purchase of Activision. Microsoft did not respond to a request for comment on the unionization efforts.
Some employees see Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision, which might take a year or more to complete, as a way for the firm to reform its culture.
Others view it as a convenient way out for the company’s troubled CEO, Bobby Kotick, who has been under criticism since last summer and is slated to walk down as CEO after the acquisition is completed, according to two individuals familiar with his intentions.
According to a transcript of the conversation obtained by The New York Times, Mr. Kotick told employees during a company livestream on Thursday with Julie Hodges, Activision’s chief people officer, that he had promised Microsoft that he would “stay as long as is necessary to ensure that we have a great integration and a great transition.”
Mr. Kotick also addressed Activision’s cultural issues, stating that the Microsoft acquisition “reinforces” his commitment to workplace change, “and we’ve clearly acknowledged that we have room for improvement.”
“Microsoft has been on its own path to enhance its workplace,” he said, “and I believe that it is a shared one.”
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The “stock market tomorrow” is a term used to describe the stock market. The S&P 500 dropped by 1.7% last week, bringing the index’s loss for the year to 6%.
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