The US labor union Communications Workers of America (CWA) has filed Unfair Labor Practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) against Lionbridge Technologies, Inc.
The CWA press release reveals that the 160-strong QA team in Boise, Idaho, who provided QA testing for Activision, believes they were laid off in retaliation for attempting to unionize. In addition to the layoffs, it’s also been alleged that Lionbridge “offered workers a severance package that required them to agree to overly broad confidentiality terms and to waive rights protected under the National Labor Relations Act. This practice has been ruled unlawful by the NLRB.”
Workers on the project were told by Lionbridge that the reason for their termination was that the project they were working on had ended; however, teams based in Mexico and Poland continue to work on it.
The CMA also outlined that Lionbridge has a documented history of past union-busting efforts. “In 2016, it laid off all the members of a union in Bellevue, Wash., shortly after workers finalized a first collectively bargained contract with the company. That unit also provided subcontracted labor to Microsoft”, says the CWA.
Insider Gaming has reached out to Microsoft and Activision for comment.
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They need to bring some stuff back get Vicarious Visions to come back as a separate studio from Blizzard give them THPS 3+4 to remake, THUG 1+2, Tenchu, True Crime, Gun, Banjo, Kameo, Conker, Otogi, Prototype, and others to remake. Also have Treyarch get back to making third person games get them the The Darkness or Nightwing license for a open world game, same with Infinity Ward get them the Spawn or Batman license for an open world third person game, hire Big Red Button Entertainment to work with Vicarious on a new Crash Bandicoot game. Let Sledgehammer try making a horror game.
QA is always the department to get shafted and it shows with how buggy and poor modern games are nowadays. Especially the illegal nature of firing staff because of organising a Union. Just flat out saying how little you care for the quality of your games.