World of Warcraft employees achieve ‘form a union’ milestone
The World of Warcraft (WoW) team, including artists, designers, engineers, producers, quality assurance (QA) testers, and other game developers, have formed a union. Over 500 workers at Blizzard Entertainment studio voted to join the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and established the World of Warcraft Gamemakers Guild, as announced in a post on the union’s official account.
Blizzard studio is the latest major game studio to form an alliance amid the uncertain layoffs and studio closures in the gaming industry. Bethesda Game Studios, the studio behind the Fallout and Elder Scrolls franchises, unionized 241 employees with the help of the CWA last weekend.
“What we’ve accomplished in World of Warcraft is just the beginning,” said test analyst and Wow Gamemakers Guild member Eric Lanham in a statement released by CWA. “My colleagues and I will start looking for better pay, benefits and job security with the help of a strong union contract. We know that when employees have a protected voice, it benefits employee standards, the studio, and World of Warcraft fans looking for the best gaming experience.”
We’re the World of Warcraft Gamemakers Guild: the first wall-to-wall union at Blizzard! We’re thrilled to include WoW’s QA, Art, Sound, Design, Engineering and Production voices for a democratized workplace. At this crucial moment in games, we stand together as one. For Azeroth! pic.twitter.com/ieewW5KFuI
— WoW Gamemaker’s Guild (@WoWGG_CWA) July 24, 2024
The World of Warcraft Gamemakers Guild is the largest wall-to-wall union currently under Microsoft. Activision formed about 600 quality assurance workers at CWA in March. In January, ZeniMax Studios also voted to merge around 300 employees.
Microsoft signed an agreement with Activision Blizzard two years ago to respect the right of its employees to form a union. The deal was part of Microsoft’s deal to take over Activision Blizzard.
The CWA is calling for the formation of the WoW Gamemakers Guild to begin a 2021 protest by Activision Blizzard employees. The crew staged a walkout at its Irvine headquarters following a lawsuit filed by the California State Department of Civil Rights (CRD) alleging the company was a “breeding ground for harassment and discrimination against women.” CRD later dropped all allegations of systemic sexual harassment, and Activision Blizzard reached a $54.8 million settlement over pay and promotion discrepancies. The WoW studio also agreed to remove “references that do not fit [its] world” from the game.
“What seemed impossible six years ago is now a reality, and this is just the beginning,” said CWA Director of Operations Tom Smith in a written statement. “Together, employees are redefining their industry.”
