Blizzard Albany QA unanimously votes to unionize

Axios' Stephen Totilo reports that Blizzard Albany's union vote was unanimously in favor of unionization. 

At a 14-0 decision, Blizzard Albany will mark the second union to be formed at Activision Blizzard, following Raven Software's efforts this past May. Under the name Game Workers Alliance (GWA) Albany, the workers will join the Communication Workers of America. 

GWA Albany's successful vote from Blizzard Albany comes a day after the NLRB shot down Activision Blizzard's efforts to expand the vote to include employees from other departments, rather than just QA.

"With this victory, we’re advocating for ourselves and each other because we care deeply about our work and the games we make," wrote Blizzard Albany's Amanda Deep in a statement. "We can only hope that our win will continue to grow the labor movement at other video game studios across the country.”

The successful vote from Blizzard Albany comes a day after the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) shot down Activision Blizzard's efforts to expand the vote to include employees from other departments, rather than just QA.

In explaining its position, the NLRB said that "testers have a separate department and separate supervision; perform a distinct function, utilizing distinct skills; and have notably lower wages than the excluded employees."

Blizzard Albany's QA department was previously given the green light by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to vote on unionization in October. In the following weeks, Activision Blizzard said it wouldn't recognize the union and filed a pair of motions to try and stop the vote from forming a "fractured workplace."

Per the New York Times' Noam Scheiber, Activision Blizzard plans to challenge the election results. "We are considering all options, with a focus on what is best for all employees," wrote the publisher. "We still believe our entire Albany team should have the right to vote."