Blizzard employees to strike after Activision’s “insulting” reaction to harassment allegations
Blizzard employees to strike after Activision’s “insulting” reaction to harassment allegations
More than 2,600 employees have already signed the protest letter against the company.
The serious accusations to Activision Blizzard for abuse and workplace harassment continue to cause discomfort among the company’s own employees, which only a few hours ago published a protest letter against the company that at the time of writing this news already exceeds 2,500 signatures . And now too, Blizzard employees have called a strike to take place this Wednesday, July 28, in protest of Activision Blizzard’s “insulting and abhorrent” response to the accusations from the state of California.
Speaking to Bloomberg , the organizers hope “to improve the conditions of the company’s employees , especially women, and in particular women of color and transgender, non-binary people and other marginal groups.” There are other demands such as “new hiring, interviewing and promotion practices to facilitate better representation” of all people.
They want to improve the conditions of employees: especially women and marginalized groupsData on compensation, salaries and promotions for employees “of all genders and ethnicities in the company” are also required to be made public. In addition, a working group on diversity should hire an external company to audit the leadership in the company, the hierarchy and the human resources department, the latter at the center of the controversy for having – allegedly – been a participant in that culture toxic of the harassment that the complaint relates.
“It is imperative to identify how current systems have failed to prevent harassment, and to propose new solutions to deal with these problems,” reads the statement made public by the organizers of this strike. Activision, so far, has denied the greatest about these accusations, but some former executives of the firm have expressed their regret for this whole situation. This is the case of the former head of Blizzard, who has acknowledged feeling embarrassed by the complaints of workplace harassment . He has not been the only one in the company. Also the president of Blizzard has declared to be furious and sad by this news .