CODE-CWA Newsletter: March 15, 2024 |
Activision Publishing Quality Assurance Workers Form Their Union! |
Workers at Activision Publishing Quality Assurance have joined CWA and Microsoft has recognized their union!
The workers are the first to organize at Activision under the labor neutrality agreement between CWA and Microsoft, which took effect upon the completion of the company’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
With approximately 600 members, Activision Quality Assurance United-CWA is the largest group of union-represented workers at any U.S. game studio! CWA now represents over 1,000 video game workers at Microsoft!
“We wanted to see improvements in the workplace, including higher wages and getting more career opportunities, and so were eager to unionize. Quality Assurance roles are described as a way to get your foot in the door in the video game industry, but the truth is, at best, we get the internal job posting before the public does. We’re ready to grow our careers here and believe that having a strong union contract will set workers and the company up for success,” said Kara Fannon, Functional QA Tester 1 and member of Activision Quality Assurance United-CWA.
We are so excited to welcome them into our union! Read more in the New York Times. Work at ABK and ready for a voice? Get in touch here. |
On February 29, Google informed workers on the YouTube Music team that they would be laid off, hours before a scheduled vote by the Austin City Council on a resolution calling on Google to bargain with these same workers in good faith. Watch the exact moment workers learned they were being laid off by Google as they were testifying in front of their local Austin city council. The workers unanimously won their union election in April 2023. In response, Google has publicly stated it would not engage in bargaining with them. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has ruled that Google’s continued refusal to bargain with the workers is unlawful. Workers are subcontracted by Cognizant to work on the Google-owned YouTube platform. The layers of subcontracting are a mechanism by which Google distances itself from its responsibilities to its workers, but the NLRB has upheld a ruling that recognized Google and Cognizant as joint employers of the workers. The NLRB found that Google has control over workers and their working conditions and is thus obligated to directly negotiate with their union. Read more here in the Washington Post.
Donate to their GoFundMe here. |
The Gender Pay Gap is Still A Reality |
March 12 marked Equal Pay Day—the day women finally make the same amount of money that white, non-Hispanic men made working in 2023.
The solution to closing the wage gap runs right through the labor movement. Women in unions earn 22 percent more in wages than nonunion women.
Read more about the gender wage gap.
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“We must start preparing the U.S. workforce for the effects of AI – now” |
At unionized workplaces, workers have a right not only to negotiate about AI when it substantially affects working conditions but also to push for protections against some of AI’s worst effects. Read more. |
March 12, 1912 – The Lawrence, Mass., “Bread and Roses” textile strike ends when the American Woolen Co. agrees to most of the strikers’ demands; other textile companies quickly followed suit. March 13, 1830 – The term “rat,” referring to a worker who betrays fellow workers, first appears in print in the New York Daily Sentinel. The newspaper was quoting a typesetter while reporting on replacement workers who had agreed to work for two-thirds of the going rate. March 17, 1968 – Staffers at San Francisco progressive rock station KMPX-FM strike, citing corporate control over what music is played and harassment over hair and clothing styles, among other things. The Rolling Stones, Joan Baez, Jefferson Airplane, the Grateful Dead, and other musicians request that the station not play their music as long as the station is run by strikebreakers. Source. |
More Than A Paycheck by Sweet Honey In The Rock We bring more than a paycheck to our loved ones and families.
We bring more than a paycheck to our loved ones and families. (x4)
I wanted more pay.
But what I’ve got today
is more than I bargained for
when I walked through your door.
I bring home
Asbestosis,
Silicosis,
brown lung,
black lung disease.
And radiation hits the children before they’ve even been conceived.
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Communications Workers of America, AFL-CIO, CLC. |
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