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Workers at a Wisconsin studio owned by Activision Blizzard, the California company that has just been purchased by Microsoft, announced they intend to form a union at the location, a report said.
The Trends Journal has reported extensively on the move to unionization for many workers across the U.S. (See “POLITICO JOURNALISTS FORM UNION. A TREND OF THE TIMES,” “LABOR UNION COMEBACK” and “STARBUCKS STORE TO UNIONIZE, A TOP TREND FOR 2022?”)
Most Americans are stuck in their menial jobs making minimum wage with no career advancement. (See “DOLLAR GENERAL EMPLOYEES: PLANTATION WORKERS OF SLAVELANDIA.”)
The employees at Raven Software say they hope that Activision voluntarily recognizes the formation without a legal fight. The New York Times said about 80 percent of the 34 employees there have signed on.
“This is just the best thing for us and our company going forward, for us to have a voice,” Erin Hall, a Raven quality assurance worker, told the paper.
The union that would represent the employees is Game Workers Alliance. Hall told the paper that unionization in the gaming industry has yet to take off, and she hopes that the trend continues.
The company said in a statement to the paper that it has increased pay and other benefits for workers and “deeply respects the rights of all employees under the law to make their own decisions about whether or not to join a union.”
The Times report pointed out several reasons why the employees have pushed to unionize. There were recently allegations of sexual harassment at the company and game workers are known to work long hours, and sometimes on the weekend when a deadline approaches for a new game.
The paper reported that there has been a shift in the industry on a whole for better representation for workers.
TREND FORECAST: When the COVID War began in 2020, there was never an expectation of the combination of an employee shortage, spiking inflation and worker strikes.
Indeed, just the opposite was expected. After being cooped up, locked down, and out of work, when there was a ceasefire in the COVID War, the workers were expected to rush back to their jobs. As we have detailed, there are several reasons for the falloff: from “No Jab, No Job” employer mandates, not wanting to work at jobs that are unfulfilling and refusing to go to work for a company that pays non-living wages.
The Trends Journal has reported extensively on the country’s shift toward so-called gig economies and cheap labor.
See:
- “SLAVELANDIA: RICH GET RICHER, POOR GET POORER”
- “AMERICA: TAX/AUDIT ‘WE THE PEOPLE,’ NOT BILLIONAIRES”
- “BILLIONAIRES BEAT TAXES: LITTLE PEOPLE PAY”
- “AMERICA’S RICHEST 400 FAMILIES PAY A TINY PERCENT OF FEDERAL INCOME TAX COMPARED TO THE WORKING CLASS.”
And now, with the Bigs in control in virtually every business sector, and no room to move up the corporate or small business ladder, many would rather not work at all than work at a job that pays $15 an hour or less, that will take them nowhere.
Thus, we forecast that unemployment numbers will remain high and hiring difficulties will persist. And, with more companies mandating and/or requiring employees to be vaccinated, this too will add to the job gap.