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More Activision Blizzard Workers File to Unionize

This is the third group of employees who have taken action to form a union at the company this year.

Alix Langone Former Reporter
Alix is a former CNET Money staff writer. She also previously reported on retirement and investing for Money.com and was a staff writer at Time magazine. Her work has also appeared in various publications, such as Fortune, InStyle and Travel + Leisure, and she worked in social media and digital production at NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt and NY1. She graduated from the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY and Villanova University. When not checking Twitter, Alix likes to hike, play tennis and watch her neighbors' dogs. Now based in Los Angeles, Alix doesn't miss the New York City subway one bit.
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Alix Langone
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Exterior shot of Activision Blizzard office
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Almost 60 video game employees at Activision Blizzard on Tuesday said they have filed for union representation, according to a report from Bloomberg. 

Workers at the Boston-based Proletariat video game studio, which was acquired by Activision Blizzard earlier this year, said they're organizing with the Communications Workers of America to form a union that includes "designers, animators, engineers, producers and quality assurance workers." If it succeeds, it will be the first union at Activision Blizzard to include employees outside of quality assurance, Bloomberg says. Proletariat's unionizing efforts mark the third push to organize that the company has seen this year, with Raven Software organizing in January and employees at Blizzard Albany voting to unionize earlier this month. 

Employees at Activision Blizzard have continued to organize despite alleged threats from the company, which was charged by the National Labor Relations Board in May with violating the National Labor Relations Act, or NLRA, which states that it's unlawful for employers to interfere with or dissuade employees seeking to organize a union.

The video game workers' unionizing efforts are happening at the same time as the Federal Trade Commission attempts to block Microsoft from purchasing Activision Blizzard for $69 billion, arguing that the merger will harm competition among video game console makers. 

In a statement to CNET, Activision Blizzard said, "Our top priority remains our employees, and we value the contributions the talented Proletariat team has made since joining Blizzard this summer. We've just received the petition and will provide a response to the NLRB in the coming days."