The union considers the hundreds of firings at Activision intolerable. The company did not lose money and Bobby Kotick made millions in bonuses while announcing layoffs.
Months ago we commented that one of the first video game developer unions had been created under the name Game Workers Unite. So far they haven't been able to take big action but now they have an opportunity to save hundreds of jobs at Activision.
A developer union against Activision
Large franchise holders such as Spyro, Crash and Call of Duty reported to their shareholders that their last fiscal quarter profit was a record. More than $ 2300 billion. Despite these numbers, they announced that they will proceed to lay off almost 800 workers. The person responsible for all this would be CEO Bobby Kotick.
Game Workers Unite considers these layoffs unjustified when they get such benefits. They calculated that if they split Kotick's salary of around 30 million dollars, they could pay those 800 salaries without problems. In addition, a bonus of 15 million was given to the executive Dennis Durkin for changing his job position in senior management at the same company. This move is also being criticized by Game Workers Unite, which says that it is just "a change of name of the position on its business card."
Mass layoffs of this type are not uncommon in development teams as large as Activision is. But that does not mean that laying off nearly a thousand in a year with record profits in the billions is an unwarranted decision and only made to cut costs. This dismissal means that 8% of all workers will go to the streets in the coming weeks. In the meantime, Activison will continue to generate more and more profits from Overwatch and Call of Duty lootboxes, and Candy Rush microtransactions.
Game Workers Unite has not yet announced what actions it will take as a union in tackling Activision. It is unlikely that all these layoffs will not happen but we cannot rule out that as a union they can exert pressure to save a few dozen or a few hundred jobs.
Source: Variety
