Activision Blizzard Executive Brian Bulatao attempting to do union busting

Imru' al-Qays said:
No you shouldn't. If a union is trying to unionize your workplace fucking sign the card.
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Here in the US, everything is corrupt, including unions. Why exactly do you think that union had that clause in their contract in the first place?

All I said was be cautious, look at what legal document you are signing. That's good advice in any situation.
 
I'm in a union. I'm in the highest paid group. People that make less than half what I do and work part time get to vote on my contract. And lazy people get away with doing nothing. I'm not a big fan of unions.
 
DeceptiveAlarm said:
I'm in a union. I'm in the highest paid group. People that make less than half what I do and work part time get to vote on my contract. And lazy people get away with doing nothing. I'm not a big fan of unions.
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That;s the thing.

Some people love unions. My sis in law whose a city nurse loves unions. She basically cant get fired as she'd brag she hit the 10 year mark which I guess for her is an important tenure for job security. She's even say if the city wants to fire people, young people with fewer years first. She has no annual performance evaluation even though she's a fucking nurse so you'd think her boss would try to see if she's doing anything wrong, she has no aspirations and just keeps doing the same thing for like 18 years.

Some people hate unions. My best friend is a teacher and hates the politics, lazy asses, but has no choice. If you want to be a teacher in Ontario you got to join. Her aspiration is to become principal and get away from the rest of them. She does these courses or something every so often which adds to her pay and qualifications or something (not sure how it works). But then there's some teacher teaching the same courses for 20 years and just hum along. The teacher could be trash, but with unon protection and seniroity you're safe. I had my share of shitty high school teachers. Doesn't make sense this crusty guy still has a job as he'd be pink slipped if he performed like this in a private company. But he's still teaching. Its gotten so bad my friend wants to change districts and see if another school board is better.
 
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STARSBarry said:
Is this like an American thing? It has to be, I have worked in my role which has a strong Union for almost a decade now and while a member and paying my fee's, have been in the fortunate position to never have to use there services.

However colleagues have and I can only say they have done what needed to be done. Most frequently to stop what was some other middle manager who's a bit to big for their boots going on some insane power mad rampage and get back into something that is covered in there perview of responsibility


There like a safety net, that makes sure that legislatively rules are followed. If they are not it's normally not the staff that's skipped out on process, it's the red faced mad lad screeching behind a closed door about someone being .5 below on targets.

There are bad unions, but there's also bad people... this weird fantasy that unions "just don't work" always bemused me about the Yank contractors who just don't understand why everything is so smooth, like our public healthcare. I would look into the history of the people spouting such nonsense and who they work for, rather than the context of the speech itself.

Unless yout some junior vice president or above the unions are going to bat for you, not pitching against.
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Less of an American thing and more of a recent thing.

Unions are good for job security, pay rights and safety. As of recent several places have been trying to form unions with the idea of power/control vs security and safety.

A recent example is the attempted unionization of office staff at Image comics. One of their demands for the union was to control what books get published, regardless of the fact that the entire purpose of Image is to allow creators to make their own books without telling them what they have to create. And this isn't for the actual artist, colorist, writers, and stand alone editors, this is just for the office staff who do next to nothing in terms of the actual books.

And as others have said, unions often protect the lazy from getting fired even when they barely do their job.
 
tkscz said:
And as others have said, unions often protect the lazy from getting fired even when they barely do their job.
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Depends on the industry I guess, but this struck a nerve... because there's always that "unions stop someone getting fired for not doing their job" and while that might be the case in terms of actual outcome, iv always found the reason the colleague gets off is because HR haven't followed the process, if they have then a preformance plan is put in place which means the colleague is effectively watched, and if they fail that (and some do) their let go.

Its also one or those you take the good with the bad, and il take those odd lazy assholes over my working right or bonuses slowly being eroded because no one's watching them. Fact of the matter is I'm in it for me, and if that means it's a little worse for the company and a little better for everyone else so be it. That's just how jobs are.
 
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Or you know, we could just stop giving actblizz money. You know? So a new better company can fill their shoes. I'm not against unions, but actblizz is just not worth the effort.
 
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tkscz said:
And as others have said, unions often protect the lazy from getting fired even when they barely do their job.
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Unions are there to protect the jobs of members. You may as well say Doctors are awful because they often save the lives of criminals.

Their imperative is to not to sit in judgement.

A failure to manage staff is a failure of management.
 
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I'm trying to figure out the idiotic math you have to do to come to the conclusion that the problems at Activision were caused by "woke employees".
 
6502 said:
Unions are there to protect the jobs of members. You may as well say Doctors are awful because they often save the lives of criminals.

Their imperative is to not to sit in judgement.

A failure to manage staff is a failure of management.
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Yea the 'lazy people,' strawman is older than the McCarthy 'probably a communist' strawman. It's also used to bypass any nuance in arguments for safetynets, welfare, or financial relief.

Truth is there will always be lazy people, but I certainly don't see many in my life. Everyone I know is working double-time and barely stringing along 😄.
 
I mean, what he said isn't technically wrong, just presenting the legal facts. I don't like Activision Blizzard, but this seems like a slight reach to generate outrage. With that said, it's not like things are going well for those employees anyway. I would be more concerned with an exit strategy.
 
A video game union specifically would be a complete disaster. think about the people who'd get these positions they are going to be the twitter type and will push for absurd things that won't in the slightest make games better.

You see these weirdo circles in the realm of gaming industry influencers they're all exclusively of a particular ilk and they will jump at the opportunity to claw more social clout. not being able to fire bad/lazy employees will be the least of their worries. Unions in general I can see both sides but one for gaming that is going to be something else.

OHTHYbv.jpg
 
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6502 said:
Unions are there to protect the jobs of members. You may as well say Doctors are awful because they often save the lives of criminals.

Their imperative is to not to sit in judgement.

A failure to manage staff is a failure of management.
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Still, a union protecting toxic people can drag down the workplace.
 
theclaw135 said:
Still, a union protecting toxic people can drag down the workplace.
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Exactly.

Who likes working in a place with shitty peers and bosses? Not me. Non-unionized places can get rid of you if you stink. Yet some reason unionized supporters love unions which protect bad workers.

They dont understand that SG&A budgets (which is mostly wages) is only so big. So with unions more bad people keep their jobs, so the wages are more squeezed closer. So all star workers at the top are getting gimped pay because the pay pool supports bad workers who are still grabbing from the pot. Why someone would support this who knows.

Few people realize that SG&A budgets are often set as a % of sales. So the fewer shitty employees, the more pay the rest get. It's like annual bonus. The better the company does that year, the higher the bonus. And you get a higher bonus if there's fewer people because bonuses are set as a % of profits (as well as other metrics).

Now if a union wants a deal where good workers are kept (because they think management will randomly fire anyone for laughs), then hey thats not bad. Then get off your ass and start doing performance and task evaluations like the rest of us do in offices meeting the boss twice a year to go over objectives, results and your rating out of 5. I've been doing this since my first office job out of school. And then management can structure a more reasonable deal with unions where job security goes for employees rated average or better.

But working at companies for 20 years, the only time I've seen people fired are for reasons:

- Bad performance
- Bad attitude
- Not showing up for work (one guy just didnt want to come to the office when asked, and this was pre-covid. He only randomly came in when he felt like it)
- Lying about sexual assault (accused someone and was false)
- Restructuring
- Old timers who cost too much and have that "hum along entitlement" work ethic where it looks like they're slacking. It doesnt look good if your 60 years old and some 32 year old peer can do the job as good as you despite the vet having 25+ more years of experience. Something is amiss

I think these are all fair reasons.

I have never seen anyone fired out of the probably 1000 people Ive worked at in head offices just for kicks, where the company is doing well, the person is liked and does a good job and isnt some stodgy old timer milking it. But management some reason gasses random people for no good reason. Never seen it.
 
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Classic Shrieker, start the tweet with an ad hominem "who worked for the Trump administration" and he thinks he doesn't have to prove his point. 🙄

Theres literally nothing wrong with that message to employees, unionising will completely change the dynamic and there will be consequences of that. Good and bad. No lies were told.
 
Jaysen said:
I'm trying to figure out the idiotic math you have to do to come to the conclusion that the problems at Activision were caused by "woke employees".
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Pretty much every complaint and demand made was in relation to "woke" ideology. Its obviously an activist led movement that is being hyped by an activist led media. Has any topic in relation to this not been about gender specifically?

I mean, what's the actual substance here that unionization is going to solve?

Noone is actually discussing the pro's and con's, the consequences economically for the business and the employees. Its "Activision bad, Kotick bad, workers good, unions good"! Its cartoon logic!

Its fucking silly.

Look at it practically: The most numerous and least stable (in employment terms) positions are things like in QA. So say, the union orders them out or to picket in response to downsizing or wholesale closures. What do you think's going to happen? Do you think they'll try to bring in scabs/strike-break with force, or simply engage some company in india or wherever else is cheap and reliable to do the job instead?

This is the thing about any sort of labour that isn't tied to infrastructure or servicing a local clientele. There's very little leverage to be had. Its just a hassle for the employer to deal with, and when its easier to work around it.... Didn't the WGA strike show people how weak this sort of bargaining position is?

This is what makes Schreier's grandstanding so odious. He's cheering this on purely for the optics and how it plays to a certain group politically. He doesn't give a shit about devs beyond using them as a means to enrich and empower himself. He's scum.
 
Unions is like Communism: it works but just in theory.

There are plenty of example where I had to take the part of my company because of (many) inept coworkers helped by unions

No company can do business when it is led by many voices.
 
Clear said:
Pretty much every complaint and demand made was in relation to "woke" ideology. Its obviously an activist led movement that is being hyped by an activist led media. Has any topic in relation to this not been about gender specifically?

I mean, what's the actual substance here that unionization is going to solve?

Noone is actually discussing the pro's and con's, the consequences economically for the business and the employees. Its "Activision bad, Kotick bad, workers good, unions good"! Its cartoon logic!

Its fucking silly.

Look at it practically: The most numerous and least stable (in employment terms) positions are things like in QA. So say, the union orders them out or to picket in response to downsizing or wholesale closures. What do you think's going to happen? Do you think they'll try to bring in scabs/strike-break with force, or simply engage some company in india or wherever else is cheap and reliable to do the job instead?

This is the thing about any sort of labour that isn't tied to infrastructure or servicing a local clientele. There's very little leverage to be had. Its just a hassle for the employer to deal with, and when its easier to work around it.... Didn't the WGA strike show people how weak this sort of bargaining position is?

This is what makes Schreier's grandstanding so odious. He's cheering this on purely for the optics and how it plays to a certain group politically. He doesn't give a shit about devs beyond using them as a means to enrich and empower himself. He's scum.
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"Please don't sexually assault us" isn't woke ideology. It's a basic human want to be treated fairly.
 
Jaysen said:
"Please don't sexually assault us" isn't woke ideology. It's a basic human want to be treated fairly.
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That's a criminal act. Not a matter of labour relations, especially in an office-based occupation what opportunities exist for sexual assist?

Stop and think about it.

Most of the stuff being brought up is happening outside of office hours without witnesses or other independent verification. Do you really expect summary dismissal based on a "she-said, he-said" types of situations? How as an employer are you supposed to know what goes on in your employees own time? And that being the case what right do you have to censure them for acts taken outside of business hours if it doesn't pass a criminal threshold?

Some people have bad habits; they can have a taste for drinking too much, doing drugs, being into whatever kink, or just be promiscuous. Should those things be under the purview of the employer and their particular sense of morality?

The crazy thing to me is that when people argue for this sort of stuff its couched in terms of greater protections for the rights of workers, and yet if you actually look at what's being demanded its for more and more control. This is not about freedoms and liberation, its a straight power-grab by a highly motivated activist group.
 
IntentionalPun said:
God I'm starting to hate Jason.

Employees forming their own union is not the same as employees being contacted by a massive labor union. I seriously doubt the "Vodeo Workers Union".. does much of anything.. I wonder if they even have union dues? lol There are 13 people at the entire company, and that is going to include people who CANT be in a labor union in the US (owners/supervisors.) Just a group of try-hards.

You really should be cautious of signing forms from a massive labor union who contacts you.

Having said that, Activision execs shouldn't be emailing employees about it either.. although they are well w/in their rights to do so.
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Starting to? The guy's an absolute scumbag and has been from the very beginning.
 
Kenpachii said:
Union up and see how it goes. The current work solution at blizzard is dog shit already for those people, so why not. Can't get any worse.
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Oh, it can. I work for a company that's ultra liberal and never gets rid of their low performers which has caused high performers to leave. I guarantee you that would get worse with a union.
 
Clear said:
That's a criminal act. Not a matter of labour relations, especially in an office-based occupation what opportunities exist for sexual assist?

Stop and think about it.

Most of the stuff being brought up is happening outside of office hours without witnesses or other independent verification. Do you really expect summary dismissal based on a "she-said, he-said" types of situations? How as an employer are you supposed to know what goes on in your employees own time? And that being the case what right do you have to censure them for acts taken outside of business hours if it doesn't pass a criminal threshold?

Some people have bad habits; they can have a taste for drinking too much, doing drugs, being into whatever kink, or just be promiscuous. Should those things be under the purview of the employer and their particular sense of morality?

The crazy thing to me is that when people argue for this sort of stuff its couched in terms of greater protections for the rights of workers, and yet if you actually look at what's being demanded its for more and more control. This is not about freedoms and liberation, its a straight power-grab by a highly motivated activist group.
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This is what I want to understand. When there's allegations of harassment, and it basically boils down to "he said she said", what's the company supposed to do? Just fire the accused without any evidence?

In this case against Activision, this isn't about harassment for the most part, the CA lawsuit was from a labor board and most of the counts dealt with "equity" and pay and such. A lot of the harassment allegations were added but not a focus, except for the media to latch on to as political leverage against the company. It's interesting how those allegations have all but vanished on an individual basis as well. Where are the criminal complaints if things were so egregious?

And note that Activision's public responses now involve going all in with DEI. That's never a good sign that would fix anything except again for activists to gain power. No one's disputing that Kotick in particular is an unethical and amoral businessman who isn't liked at all, but going from one extreme to another is the worst outcome.
 
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In a previous life if a Union representative was successful the location that passed the petition would be closed, moved across the street (a new location), and all new employee interviews would take place.

The ones singing their names on cards were not hired at the new location.
 
Clear said:
That's a criminal act. Not a matter of labour relations, especially in an office-based occupation what opportunities exist for sexual assist?

Stop and think about it.

Most of the stuff being brought up is happening outside of office hours without witnesses or other independent verification. Do you really expect summary dismissal based on a "she-said, he-said" types of situations? How as an employer are you supposed to know what goes on in your employees own time? And that being the case what right do you have to censure them for acts taken outside of business hours if it doesn't pass a criminal threshold?

Some people have bad habits; they can have a taste for drinking too much, doing drugs, being into whatever kink, or just be promiscuous. Should those things be under the purview of the employer and their particular sense of morality?

The crazy thing to me is that when people argue for this sort of stuff its couched in terms of greater protections for the rights of workers, and yet if you actually look at what's being demanded its for more and more control. This is not about freedoms and liberation, its a straight power-grab by a highly motivated activist group.
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If that shit is happening, knowingly, during business hours and events then yes you're damn right the business is at fault. None of this is about "wokeness", which has just become an idiotic buzzword thrown around by the clueless when they can't find actual words to express their frayed emotions.
 
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StreetsofBeige said:
Thats the thing I never understood. If game companies are so trashy with 14 hour crunches killing your home life, then get a different job. It's not like some secret only found out after you accept employment. When the gaming populace even knows about it, it's no secret. But they forged ahead.

Getting back to coal mining, if I hated being underground in dark cold tunnels and smelling dusty fumes, and didnt want to work at a job that has high rates of injury, well golly, the logical thing to do is NOT be a coal miner.

But then some guy will get accepted to a job there and complain about dark tunnels.

WTF?
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Back in the 90s, I looked into game development (degree in CS), read about the hours, and said "Fuck that!". It astounds me all these fools that jump in headfirst and then find out they are expected to live at work. Do a little research first. And if you didn't, find something else. Back then, we didn't have all these mentally ill commies insisting the world owes them something.
 
Jaysen said:
If that shit is happening, knowingly, during business hours and events then yes you're damn right the business is at fault. None of this is about "wokeness", which has just become an idiotic buzzword thrown around by the clueless when they can't find actual words to express their frayed emotions.
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The one acting on emotion is you. And it is all about wokeness when you're specifically in the domain of sexual relationships in the workplace, because wokeness has transformed what is and is not considered acceptable. What used to be considered making an edgy but fundamentally harmless joke would now be treated as something far more sinister because of the woke culture of weaponized offence.

What's worse is that these seismic shifts in perception are being applied retroactively. So things that noone was upset about in 2013 are now treated as if they were happening in the current scolding puritanical climate.

Its just another facet of cancel culture which you can clearly tell because its being championed by the same people.
 
STARSBarry said:
There are bad unions, but there's also bad people... this weird fantasy that unions "just don't work" always bemused me about the Yank contractors who just don't understand why everything is so smooth, like our public healthcare. I would look into the history of the people spouting such nonsense and who they work for, rather than the context of the speech itself.
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The problem is the collective mindstate/culture of America of "Fuck you, got mine" that is exploited by the people who actually fuck us all and get theirs, the executives, those with inherited wealth, etc.

Everything is about climbing some ladder, and convincing yourself that you are actually high up that ladder, with swaths of people below you less deserving, and anything given to them will take away from what you deserve. A lot of it is just delusional, and it's all incredibly selfish.

It's also about convincing yourself that you are one of those people that would never deserve to get fired, your work is impeccable, and you don't need any union fighting for you. They don't foresee the future where.. they actually are a liability.. their advanced pay isn't "Worth it" anymore.. 2 young upstarters could be hired to replace your old ass.. especially for those that never become managerial class. This country is full of old fucks who spent their entire life complaining about "poor people" who end up working at Home Depot barely able to afford their diapers.

Same with not supporting social services; everyone in America thinks they'll never need them, including those who actually use them all the time without thinking about it. The working class making decent money thinks they'll all be comfortably retired.. when.. most never are, and really could use some social services when they are old.

Aside from that, there is a near complete lack of kindness in our culture. It's all instead replaced by bullshit Christianity.. people don't measure themselves by their kindness, but their invented Godliness. They twist things so much they actually think it's a kindness NOT to give people things lol

And a lot of this.. well it applies to Unions too.. they become powerful, people who want power seek positions in these unions.. they handsomely reward themselves.. they do some OK union stuff here or there but they are like everything else in America, doing some sort of funneling of the money to the top. Everyone has a "fuck you, got mine" attitude, and are convinced they "got theirs".. when.. statistically.. well, they haven't.
 
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Jaysen said:
If that shit is happening, knowingly, during business hours and events then yes you're damn right the business is at fault. None of this is about "wokeness", which has just become an idiotic buzzword thrown around by the clueless when they can't find actual words to express their frayed emotions.
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OMG, what's that saying? Oh yea, look at the pot calling the kettle black! Ok xir!
 
IntentionalPun said:
The problem is the collective mindstate/culture of America of "Fuck you, got mine" that is exploited by the people who actually fuck us all and get theirs, the executives, those with inherited wealth, etc.

Everything is about climbing some ladder, and convincing yourself that you are actually high up that ladder, with swaths of people below you less deserving, and anything given to them will take away from what you deserve. A lot of it is just delusional, and it's all incredibly selfish.

It's also about convincing yourself that you are one of those people that would never deserve to get fired, your work is impeccable, and you don't need any union fighting for you. They don't foresee the future where.. they actually are a liability.. their advanced pay isn't "Worth it" anymore.. 2 young upstarters could be hired to replace your old ass.. especially for those that never become managerial class. This country is full of old fucks who spent their entire life complaining about "poor people" who end up working at Home Depot barely able to afford their diapers.

Same with not supporting social services; everyone in America thinks they'll never need them, including those who actually use them all the time without thinking about it. The working class making decent money thinks they'll all be comfortably retired.. when.. most never are, and really could use some social services when they are old.

Aside from that, there is a near complete lack of kindness in our culture. It's all instead replaced by bullshit Christianity.. people don't measure themselves by their kindness, but their invented Godliness. They twist things so much they actually think it's a kindness NOT to give people things lol

And a lot of this.. well it applies to Unions too.. they become powerful, people who want power seek positions in these unions.. they handsomely reward themselves.. they do some OK union stuff here or there but they are like everything else in America, doing some sort of funneling of the money to the top. Everyone has a "fuck you, got mine" attitude, and are convinced they "got theirs".. when.. statistically.. well, they haven't.
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Cope harder.
 
Clear said:
Some people have bad habits; they can have a taste for drinking too much, doing drugs, being into whatever kink, or just be promiscuous. Should those things be under the purview of the employer and their particular sense of morality?
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It's when it involves subordinates.. or things like.. clients.. is where the lines get crossed.

And if your "habit" is to "sexually harass".. then.. yeah, that's a serious issue.
 
tygertrip said:
Cope harder.
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Any recommendations on how I should cope?

I was thinking about maybe popping this bottle of '96 Chateau Lafite, demolish this pile of cocaine, and make my wife eat my GFs ass while I watch that new MacGruber show.

tygertrip said:
Says the person with a disgusting, obscene, tag.
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My wife has a perfect butthole, and does not work with or for me, friendo. I don't involve co-workers in my degenerate lifestyle, it's.. not smart.. and if your social circle only involves co-workers you need to get out more.

So I will celebrate that butthole all I like!
 
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Gaming industry is in dire need of unionization with the amount of crunch and employee abuse that goes on.

Suck it up Activision. Its basically your own fault.
 
IntentionalPun said:
Any recommendations on how I should cope?

I was thinking about maybe popping this bottle of '96 Chateau Lafite, demolish this pile of cocaine, and make my wife eat my GFs ass while I watch that new MacGruber show.



My wife has a perfect butthole, and does not work with or for me, friendo. I don't involve co-workers in my degenerate lifestyle, it's.. not smart.. and if your social circle only involves co-workers you need to get out more.

So I will celebrate that butthole all I like!
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Yet you plaster it all over a public forum. Hypocrite, lol.
 
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