Activision workers seek to organize
A group of Activision Blizzard Inc. video game testers in New York are petitioning to unionize, expanding labor’s foothold in the gaming industry.
Employees at the Activision subsidiary Blizzard Albany are organizing with the Communications Workers of America and asking the U.S. labor board to hold a unionization election, the group said in a statement Tuesday.
CWA prevailed in a May election among staff at Activision’s Raven Software arm, the first such win at a U.S.-listed game company.
“There’s issues in the video game industry that often go unnoticed because our work is seen as more of a passion instead of a job,” Activision employee Amanda Laven said in the statement.
“We know that by having a seat at the table our union will not only give us structure and power, but also give us a path forward to improve our workplace because management won’t be able to ignore us all anymore.”
Microsoft plans to buy Activision for $69 billion, and the deal is expected to be completed by June pending regulatory approval.
In June, CWA announced a pact with Microsoft Corp. to ease future organizing at Activision.
Under that agreement, Microsoft will stay neutral when Activision workers seek to organize, rather than campaigning aggressively against unionization as U.S. companies often do.
An Activision spokesperson said the company’s employees are its top priority.
“We deeply respect the rights of all employees under the law to make their own decisions about whether or not to join a union,” the spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
“We believe that a direct relationship between the company and its employees is the most productive relationship.”
In the union’s statement, workers said they want to secure fair pay, better treatment, and job security by organizing.
Blizzard Albany staff work on the popular Diablo game franchise; their studio, once called Vicarious Visions, was acquired by Activision in 2005 and recently merged into Blizzard.
Cryptocurrencies stage big rally
A rally in cryptocurrencies Tuesday took Bitcoin out of a one-month-old trading range and ignited big jumps in smaller tokens commonly referred to as altcoins.
The largest virtual coin climbed as much as 9.1% to $23,439, a level it was last at in mid-June, or just after the collapse of crypto lender Celsius Network.
Ether at one point added almost 11%. Solana also achieved a double-digit percentage gain before falling back.
Bitcoin has struggled to escape a $19,000 to $22,000 range as investors lick their wounds from a rout sparked by tightening monetary policy and exacerbated by the toppling of Celsius and the TerraUSD stablecoin in May.
It has retreated from a record high of almost $69,000 in November.
“’I think the worst happened,” Galaxy Digital Chief Executive Mike Novogratz said at the Bloomberg Crypto Summit.
A sustained break above could renew the speculative momentum that can grip crypto assets in the blink of an eye.
From wire reports
Expectations for Federal Reserve interest-rate hikes are less aggressive now, which may help.