Diese Seite macht ausgiebigen Gebrauch von JavaScript.
Bitte aktiviert JavaScript in Eurem Browser.
Classic Aussehen
Thottbot Aussehen
ABK Workers Alliance sendet neuen Brief an die Activision Blizzard-Führung und lehnt die Wahl der Kanzlei WilmerHale ab
Blizzard
Geposted
03.08.2021 um 12:20
von
perculia
IGN
hat berichtet
, dass eine Koalition von Activision Blizzard-Mitarbeitern die
ABK Workers Alliance
gegründet und einen neuen Brief an die Activision Blizzard-Führung geschickt hat, in dem sie ihre Unzufriedenheit mit der Wahl von WilmerHale für die Durchführung einer internen Überprüfung zum Ausdruck bringen und die Führung auffordern, auf die Forderungen einzugehen, die sie letzte Woche in ihrer
Absichtserklärung
formuliert haben.
Vollständiger IGN-Bericht
Activision Blizzard gab heute bekannt, dass
Blizzard-Präsident J. Allen Brack zurücktritt
, aber dieser Brief ging nicht auf die
Forderungen
der Arbeitsniederlegung von letzter Woche ein, die ein Ende der obligatorischen Schiedsklauseln, eine bessere Vertretung bei der Einstellung von Mitarbeitern, Lohntransparenz und eine Prüfung durch eine neutrale Task Force forderte.
Letzte Woche veröffentlichte der CEO von Activision Blizzard, Bobby Kotick, eine
wohlwollende Erklärung
, in der er sich für die früheren "unpassenden" Botschaften des Unternehmens entschuldigte, aber auch darin ging er nicht direkt auf die Anliegen der Beschäftigten ein. In diesem Brief kündigte Bobby Kotick an, dass die Drittfirma WilmerHale eine interne Überprüfung des Unternehmens durchführen würde, eine Entscheidung, die die Mitarbeiter beunruhigt hat, da WilmerHale in der Vergangenheit Verbindungen zur Führung von Activision Blizzard hatte und in den Medien den Ruf hat, eine "gewerkschaftsfeindliche Firma" zu sein.
All dies geschieht im Vorfeld der heutigen Activision Blizzard Telefonkonferenz mit den Investoren um 13:30 Uhr.
Im Folgenden findet ihr den vollständigen Brief der ABK Workers Alliance, der ursprünglich auf
IGN
veröffentlicht wurde.
Monday, August 2, 2021
Twitter: @ABetterABK
To CEO Bobby Kotick and the Activision Blizzard executive leadership team,
We are The ABK Workers Alliance, an organized group of current Activision Blizzard, Inc. employees committed to defending our right to a safe and equitable workplace. That right remains endangered as the stories of abuse and mistreatment continue to grow in scope, and new accounts of harassment perpetrated by current Activision Blizzard employees have continued to emerge since the publication of the DFEH’s lawsuit.
Last week, we took collective action to demand better working conditions for women and other marginalized groups at Activision Blizzard King (ABK) by writing an open letter signed by more than 3,000 current employees. We organized the #ActiBlizzWalkout at Blizzard Entertainment’s Irvine headquarters where more than 500 workers walked out and hundreds more participated virtually around the world.
Our request for action crosses studio lines, including workers from Activision, Beenox, Blizzard Entertainment, High Moon Studios, Infinity Ward, King, Sledgehammer Games, Raven Software, and Vicarious Visions. Our goal is for the executive leadership team to address their response to the California DFEH lawsuit, acknowledge the reality of working conditions across our organization, and commit to meaningful change at Activision Blizzard.
We communicated a list of four demands aimed at protecting our most vulnerable workers. These are: (1) an end to forced arbitration in employment agreements, (2) the adoption of inclusive recruitment and hiring practices, (3) increases in pay transparency through compensation metrics, and (4) an audit of ABK policies and practices to be performed by a neutral third-party. Importantly, we demanded that this third party be selected by an employee-led Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion task force.
In response to our demands, you wrote a letter to employees expressing a commitment to doing a better job of listening. You said you would do everything possible to work with employees in improving our workplace. And yet, the solutions you proposed in that letter did not meaningfully address our requests. You ignored our call for an end to mandatory arbitration. You did not commit to adopting inclusive recruitment and hiring practices. You made no comment on pay transparency.
One of our demands, a third-party audit of ABK practices and policies, was ostensibly addressed by your decision to hire WilmerHale to conduct an internal review. While we commend the idea of hiring a third-party firm to perform an internal review, The ABK Workers Alliance cannot support the choice of WilmerHale as an impartial reviewer.
We reject the selection of WilmerHale for the following reasons:
●
WilmerHale’s pre-existing relationships with Activision Blizzard and its executives create an unacceptable conflict of interest.
○ Activision Blizzard has already been a client of WilmerHale, who you used to dispute the Diverse Candidate Search Policy proposed by the AFL-CIO Reserve Fund and UAW Retiree Medical Benefits Trust earlier in 2021.
○ Frances Townsend is known to have relationships with multiple partners at WilmerHale, including former FBI Director Robert Mueller .
●
WilmerHale has a history of discouraging workers’ rights and collective action.
○ WilmerHale states on their public website that their services include “advising on union awareness and avoidance” .
○ WilmerHale used anti-collective action tactics in their work with Amazon & Uber .
○ In media portrayals, WilmerHale is regularly referred to as a “Union Busting Firm” . We are already seeing the effects of this ideology in actions that leadership has taken to restrict our freedom of association since last week, including reducing the size of listening sessions and limiting access to those sessions.
●
The WilmerHale partner leading this investigation, Stephanie Avakian, specializes in protecting the wealthy and powerful.
○ WilmerHale outlined Avakian’s work as: “...counseling and defending financial institutions, public and private companies, hedge funds, accounting firms, investment advisors, boards, corporate executives, and individuals facing regulatory and criminal investigations and litigation with the government .”
○ In Stephanie’s speech highlighting her successes with the SEC, all of her significant examples included achievements in favor of investors, retail clients, and customers, but does not once mention employees or laborers . We need legal representation that centers on the concerns of our current employees, rather than investors.
We call on you and your executive leadership team to do better, and to fully address our list of demands. We will not abandon our cause. Our ranks continue to grow across multiple Activision Blizzard studios. While there are structural problems that only you can address, we are already taking steps to improve our workplace through a number of employee-driven initiatives:
●
Worker-to-Worker Mentorship:
We are building a mentorship program where workers can seek career advice, support, and sponsorship from a network of colleagues in a safe external channel outside company communication networks.
●
Open Listening Sessions:
We will host listening sessions that will be recorded and disseminated across the organization to facilitate ongoing conversation, education, and emotional support for employees.
●
Community Meetings:
We will facilitate monthly employee meetings, in a secure external channel, to discuss our concerns, desires, and progress toward achieving our goals. All current ABK employees are welcome to participate in these conversations.
As these actions show, we love our studios and care deeply for our colleagues. We share your expressed unwavering commitment to improving our company together.
We are doing what we can, and we call on you to do what we cannot.
Sincerely,
The ABK Workers Alliance
Twitter: @ABetterABK
Hol' dir Wowhead
Premium
2 USD
Ein Monat
Erlebe die Seite ohne Werbung, schalte Premium-Funktionen frei und unterstütze sie!
Kommentare zu diesem Newsbeitrag sind gesperrt.
Anmelden um Kommentar zu erstellen
Ihr seid nicht angemeldet. Bitte
meldet Euch an
, oder
registriert Euch
, um einen Kommentar einzusenden.
Vorheriger Post
Nächster Post