Following California’s filing of a lawsuit against Activision Blizzard last week, employees at the company are planning to walk out and strike on Wednesday, August 28th, to protest the “frat boy” culture, sexual discrimination, and inequitable working conditions outlined in the lawsuit and felt by personal experience of many of the employees themselves.
Organized by a group of employees at Blizzard, the strike event is being called the Activision Blizzard Walkout for Equality. A virtual walkout is asking all Activision Blizzard employees who are able to stop working from 9 am to 6 pm Pacific. A live event—expected to garner around 50+ attendees—will take place at the Blizzard campus.
The organizers have penned a Statement of Intent and addressed it to Activision Blizzard management. It outlines four main demands that the employees have to help create a culture shift and more fair and equitable working conditions at the company. The first point is to end mandatory arbitration clauses The full statement is as follows:
Given last week’s statements from Activision Blizzard, Inc. and their legal counsel regarding the DFEH lawsuit, as well as the subsequent internal statement from Frances Townsend, and the many stories shared by current and former employees of Activision Blizzard since, we believe that our values as employees are not being accurately reflected in the words and actions of our leadership.
As current Activision Blizzard employees, we are holding a walkout to call on the executive leadership team to work with us on the following demands, in order to improve conditions for employees at the company, especially women, and in particular women of color and transgender women, nonbinary people, and other marginalized groups.
1. An end to mandatory arbitration clauses in all employee contracts, current and future. Arbitration clauses protect abusers and limit the ability of victims to seek restitution.
2. The adoption of recruiting, interviewing, hiring, and promotion policies designed to improve representation among employees at all levels, agreed upon by employees in a company-wide Diversity, Equity & Inclusion organization. Current practices have led to women, in particular women of color and transgender women, nonbinary people, and other marginalized groups that are vulnerable to gender discrimination not being hired fairly for new roles when compared to men.
3. Publication of data on relative compensation (including equity grants and profit sharing), promotion rates, and salary ranges for employees of all genders and ethnicities at the company. Current practices have led to aforementioned groups not being paid or promoted fairly.
4. Empower a company-wide Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion task force to hire a third party to audit ABK’s reporting structure, HR department, and executive staff. It is imperative to identify how current systems have failed to prevent employee harassment, and to propose new solutions to address these issues.
Speaking with Kotaku, a representative for the walkout said that they understand not everyone, specifically those “paid less than they deserve,” can comfortably take the day off to participate. ““We are encouraging employees to take whatever time off they feel safe to do,” the rep said. “Most of us plan to take the full day off (without pay), but we understand some people like contractors and associates, and those who are paid less than they deserve, might not have the ability to do so.”
Activision Blizzard employees, like much of the video game industry, are not unionized, and a representative for the walkout told Bloomberg that unionization isn’t being discussed with regards to this particular situation.
Organizers are asking for support of the walkout using the #ActiBlizzWalkout hashtag and the blue heart emoji.
A letter has also been signed by more than 2,600 current and former Activision Blizzard employees denouncing the dismissive statements from executives regarding the California lawsuit. The walkout represents an escalation and further calls for action to Activision Blizzard and its management and executive teams.
Multiple outlets have opted to cease coverage of Activision Blizzard games for the time being until the company can show a demonstrable effort for change to eliminate its “frat boy” culture and providing an equitable and safe working environment free of sexual harassment and discrimination. Outside of a couple of dismissive statements and emails from executives J. Allen Brack and Frances Townsend, Activision Blizzard has been largely silent regarding the lawsuit allegations and the ensuing rise in voices from current and former employees. All of Activision Blizzard’s assorted social channels—both games and developers—have been completely silent since July 21 when the lawsuit was made public.