Activision Blizzard workers plan walkout over dropped vaccine mandate

Activision Blizzard workers are expected to walk off the job Monday following the removal of its vaccine mandate. This was in anticipation of their return to work within the next months. Information about the COVID-19 plan being relaxed was leaked on social mediaFollowing an email sent by Brian Bulatao, Activision Blizzard executive

Bulatao stated in an email that employees are no longer required to have vaccines to be able to return to work. This was effective immediately. Activision Blizzard employees are likely to be back at work in the next few months. However, it is not expected that they will. ImmediatelyThose who work from home will be affected. Bulatao cited lifted vaccine requirements “across the U.S.,” as COVID-19 cases are spiking in Asia and Europe, according to Vox. Some experts suggest a new wave is coming — or already has begun — in the United States, the New York Times reported.

Following Bulatao’s email, some Activision Blizzard staff began publicly opposing the dropped requirement. The ABK Workers Alliance, a group that formed following Activision Blizzard’s initial sexual harassment lawsuit from last year and has managed multiple walkouts since then, announced the walkout on Friday — it’s scheduled to take place Monday, April 4. Representatives for the group didn’t have any estimate of how many participants they would need.

The group is demanding Activision Blizzard reverse the dropped vaccine requirement, offer remote work as a “permanent solution,” and allow workers to make these decisions regarding work-from-home individually. Follow the protest using these hashtags #SickOfThis, #GameWorkersUnite.

“As part of returning to office, Blizzard and Activision Blizzard held several feedback sessions and polls over the course of three months, at the end of which they decided to mandate the vaccine for workers coming into office,” a representative for ABK Workers Alliance told Polygon. “This was the agreement under which people agreed to come back. This recent change was not run by any employees before being announced.”

According to the representative, studio management wasn’t informed and was not consulted. “This reversal puts people at risk for infection. I and many other employees are angry that our company is pushing toward mandatory returns to office with this restriction lifted.”

Activision Blizzard has not responded to Polygon’s request for comment.

Activision Blizzard employees have walked out of work multiple times in 2021, the first of which occurred in July 2021 following the company’s “abhorrent and insulting” response to the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing lawsuit, which exposed serious allegations of sexism and harassment at the World of WarcraftCall of Duty publisher. Workers walked out again, calling for CEO Bobby Kotick’s resignation, in November following a Wall Street Journal report detailing Kotick’s alleged involvement in minimizing reports of employee misconduct.

Activision Blizzard workers walked off again in December after they claimed that a few QA workers had been laid off. After a walkout, workers declared a unionization initiative at their company. Those workers, called Game Workers Alliance, are awaiting a decision from the National Labor Relations Board regarding the union’s potential scope.