Activision Blizzard employees plan walkout on Wednesday; here’s their list of demands for corporate leadership

Activision Blizzard employees are taking more action after yesterday’s open letter protesting the company’s history of sexual harassment, and its poor handling of the situation. The open letter has now garnered over 2600 employee signatures, but it isn’t the end of the action. Tomorrow, employees are planning a walkout and they have a list of demands for the company’s executive leadership. The gaming industry needs real change, and it seems that these employees intend to get it.

Here’s their statement in full:

Activision Blizzard Walkout for Equality

Given last week’s statements from Activision Blizzard, Inc. and their legal counsel regarding the DFEH lawsuit, as well as the subsequent internal statement from Frances Townsend, and the many stories shared by current and former employees of Activision Blizzard since, we believe that our values as employees are not being accurately reflected in the words and actions of our leadership.

As current Activision Blizzard employees, we are holding a walkout to call on the executive leadership team to work with us on the following demands, in order to improve conditions for employees at the company, especially women, and in particular women of color and transgender women, nonbinary people, and other marginalized groups.

1. An end to mandatory arbitration clauses in all employee contracts, current and future. Arbitration clauses protect abusers and limit the ability of victims to seek restitution.
2. The adoption of recruiting, interviewing, hiring, and promotion policies designed to improve representation among employees at all levels, agreed upon by employees in a company-wide Diversity, Equity & Inclusion organization. Current practices have led to women, in particular women of color and transgender women, nonbinary people, and other marginalized groups that are vulnerable to gender discrimination not being hired fairly for new roles when compared to men.
3. Publication of data on relative compensation (including equity grants and profit sharing), promotion rates, and salary ranges for employees of all genders and ethnicities at the company. Current practices have led to aforementioned groups not being paid or promoted fairly.
4. Empower a company-wide Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion task force to hire a third party to audit ABK’s reporting structure, HR department, and executive staff. It is imperative to identify how current systems have failed to prevent employee harassment, and to propose new solutions to address these issues.

Walkout Details

The walkout will take place on Wednesday, July 28th. From 10 AM-2 PM PDT, we’ll meet in front of the main gate of the Blizzard Campus. We will not enter the Blizzard Campus due to the current COVID health and security measures. Parking should be restricted to the open parking lot in the building 5 and 6 area (Laguna Canyon Road) as there is no gate to access it.

Employees unable to meet in person may lend their voice to the walkout by stopping work and by sharing their participation on social media with the #ActiBlizzWalkout hashtag. If you belong to a different studio, please feel free to customize the hashtag: #(YourStudio)Walkout.

Community Support

We thank our community for standing with us on this. Please feel free to signal boost the hashtag #ActiBlizzWalkout, and by using the blue heart emoji. We would also encourage anyone who wants to stand in solidarity with us to donate to one of the following charities.

• Black Girls Code
• Futures without Violence
• Girls Who Code
• RAINN
• Women In Animation
• Women in Games International

It will take a lot of hard work to change the treatment of women and minorities in the gaming industry, but this looks like a good start.