Raven told staff they will be embedding their QA workers into other departments

[elenarie]

This is not union busting. It is how many other studios, including unionised ones, work.

It is a great move for the QA team. It gets them closer to the rest of their teammates. They have better exposure and potential for more opportunities. It is how QA should actually function and not be this terrible oursourcing-like and vendor-like structure that some studios still have where QA are considered a separate and isolated team.

Speaking as a worker in an unionised workplace where QA folks are directly embedded into each feature team, rather being part of an isolated team.

 

[Tactical Tumbler]

Embedding QA doesn't dissolve the core QA team or anything like that. What embedding does is allow teams to have testers who know the ins and outs of that specific team (art, character, live services, etc) which allows them to be more efficient.

I've been worked at a few studios who use embedded QA where we still had our own team meetings, processes, and leadership. Doing this doesn't break QA up into smaller groups who can't work together or unionize. Based on my experience I feel that calling this union busting is a bit of a stretch.

The time is a bit weird yeah, but this is a practice more studios should be doing.

 

[Toumari]

 

[Brot]

There's been an update to the situation, with plans detailing Activision's efforts to embed the QA testers.

Activision Blizzard employees and management clash over union process in Zoom hearing​

Most of the testers work on the popular game "Call of Duty: Warzone" and had been working toward unionization for months. They said they were motivated by recent layoffs, excessive overtime and low pay.

"The lack of transparency from management during this process, coupled with their refusal to come to the table with Raven QA workers, has been demoralizing," the Game Workers Alliance said in a statement shared with The Washington Post Wednesday. "It's past time for Activision Blizzard to recognize that we — the workers — have organized our union and we're not backing down."
Activision Blizzard said in a statement to The Post: "This is an important decision that will affect everyone at Raven, and we believe that every eligible employee deserves to have their vote counted. We look forward to the NLRB's decision."

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Activision presented its argument first, displaying an illustration that showed Raven's organizational chart from when quality assurance testers were a separate department, alongside one where the testers were included as part of every department. The company reorganized its quality assurance department Jan. 24 during an internal meeting, shortly after its workers announced their intentions to unionize.

The illustration was a source of laughter among employees who attended the hearing, as they created and shared memes over what management said. They pointed out that in the company's illustration, quality assurance testers were now divided up and there was a tester working inside the marketing department and inside the information technology team, which wasn't realistic. In the first graphic, testers sat siloed from the rest of the teams.

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Activision counsel and leadership argued that quality assurance testers are no longer their own separate department, as they have been spread across multiple departments at Raven, getting integrated with different teams and becoming "embedded testers." Raven employees believe the move was done to undermine the unionization effort.

"The first few days we were supposed to start the embedded testing model no one, not even management, knew who we would be directly reporting to," said a Raven employee, who requested anonymity for fear of retaliation. "Several weeks into being an embedded tester, it is still not clear to me exactly what I'm supposed to be doing."

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In the days leading up to the hearing, workers have accused management of sending anti-union messages and videos in internal discussion boards and meetings.

Last Friday, Raven management held a meeting with employees to discuss how the union could affect work conditions, Raven workers told The Post. Senior director David Pellas said in the meeting that unions could limit the amount of overtime worked, which might affect the quality of a game upon launch. Pellas added he believed that unionization could lead to challenges, but said he wasn't sure what those were.

Raven union organizers responded to the meeting in a Feb. 11 public Twitter thread, saying, "Leadership asked questions about all the bad things a union could do. But they failed to ask what good things a union could do."

Asked about anti-union rhetoric, an Activision Blizzard spokesman said in a statement to The Post: "All sides — union, company, and employees — have the right to express their positions regarding the election. Our stance is that employees should get all the facts. We believe in, and have clearly emphasized many times, that we support the right of employees to decide whether or not to support or vote for a union, without coercion from anyone."

Communications Workers of America national organizing director Tom Smith disputed that characterization in a statement to The Post.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2022/02/17/activision-blizzard-union-call-of-duty/

I encourage everyone to read the whole article.