I'm a union organizer. I talk about this on lemmy a lot. Today at 3pm, I got a call from my lawyer that the NLRB had dismissed my case on the grounds that I did not post protected speech. We never made that argument. Rather, we were charging that the company discriminated against me for being a union organizer.
Now that my case no longer exists, I can share receipts and a detailed timeline. You folks get to be the judge now.
On or about October 26, 2020, I started working at Activision Blizzard King as a Quality Assurance tester for Activision Publishing in Eden Prairie, MN on the night shift. My first project was Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. Unfortunately my name is not in the credits because I started after the crediting freeze. I was immediately thrown into intense crunch working 70hr weeks, with 1 day off every 8th day. I did this for 6 weeks, before we were reduced to 60hr weeks for 5 weeks. After that, it was mostly 40hr weeks, with occasional 60hr crunch periods happening every so often.
On July 20, 2021, the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing filed a lawsuit against the company for egregious sexual harassment charges. 7 days later on July 27, a work stoppage occurred in protest of the company's response. J Allen Brack from Blizzard resigned in the aftermath.
On November 2, 2021, Jen O'Neal stepped down from cochair due to sexual discrimination. On November 16, 2021, an article was released which detailed ABK CEO Bobby Kotick's extensive complicity in sexual harassment. 2 days later on the 18th, another work stoppage occurred. We petitioned the board of directors to fire Kotick, which they refused to do.
On December 3, 2021, Raven Software laid off 30% of the QA team with no announcement. 3 days later on the 6th, the QA team began a work stoppage that lasted for 6 weeks. On or about December 15, 2021, I became the first union organizer at my office while participating in this work stoppage.
Early 2022, the Communication Workers of America began negotiations for a contract with Microsoft for a historic 2 year Card-Check Neutrality Agreement, in which the company is legally obligated to voluntarily recognize any unions that form during that time period.
On or about September 8, 2023, Microsoft completes the acquisition of Activision Blizzard. The Neutrality Agreement comes into effect.
On or about November 27, 2023, the company announced a Voluntary Severance Package for employees due to a mandatory requirement to work in the office, without exception for accommodations.
On March 8, 2024, 600 QA employees across Eden Prairie (MN), Austin (TX), and Los Angeles (CA) under Activision Publishing win voluntary recognition forming the largest tech union in North America. They become known as Activision Quality Assurance United, or AQAU-CWA.
October 25, 2024, a rally occurred at 12PM CST at the Eden Prairie office, at which workers protested the untenable accommodations process. Workers with disabilities were suffering due to the lack of flexibility for remote work. I was a lead organizer and the spokesperson for our union in a local news broadcast. The date is also significant due to the launch of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6.
On or about November 6, 2024, an unknown employee leaks the response of a trans coworker over the presidential election to right wing influencer Grummz. Grummz subsequently posts the picture on X (below). This is significant because any leak, including accidental, are grounds for immediate termination at Activision Blizzard.
On November 16, 2024 at approximately 7PM, I create a slack post advocating for responsible self defense and gun safety. Within the post, I provide options for less-lethal self defense. Both below.
60 hours later, the comment and post were removed by the company. 72 hours later, I attended an HR investigation with my union steward as a Weingarten representative. I was given an estimate that a decision would be reached by Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving arrives without a decision. I leave for vacation to participate in a union conference. When I returned to work on December 9, 2024, I receive notice of immediate termination for cause. See termination letter below.
On January 10, 2025, CWA submits a Request For Information regarding the complaints received about my post. We discover that despite claims of several complaints, there are only 8. Additionally, 6 complaints are from company management, including one of them submitted by the top manager of my office. Additionally, a related RFI for a different case revealed that my termination was an outlier for unprofessional conduct.
On a date unknown to me, CWA and Microsoft begin negotiations to restore my position. The company ultimately rejects the notion, with Chief People Officer Amy Baker issuing the following statement on February 5, 2025. On February 6, I provide my union with corrections to their statement.
In preparation for filing my Unfair Labor Practice, union stewards collected literally hundreds of screenshots involving the discussion of weapons that did not receive discipline. These screenshots don't mean much without appropriate context, which would balloon this already long post, so I'm declining to add them. They also collected character statements about me from multiple coworkers contradicting the company allegations that I was dangerous and that my post was inappropriate, which I have included.
On one hand, almost certainly the company was looking for a reason to fire you for being an union organizer. It's a common occurrence if your union was independent, after all it's in their interest to only allow unions whom the company directly or indirectly has control over.
On other other, talking about how coworkers should safely arm themselves with lethal weapons on the company slack channel was you giving execs what they wanted on a silver platter. The best thing one can do is learn lessons from this to 1. if you're going to post things like that, do it in some private chat/group that has people who need this and 2. try not to fall into mass hysterias like that and fuck up your life or efforts because of it, as hard as it might be.
I agree with this take. Whichever way OP meant it, his post can absolutely be interpreted as a call to prepare for (lethal) violence against law enforcement. And promoting concealed carry in general suggests promoting it in the workplace as well (especially because it was on a company Slack channel). I can understand that that gets people nervous.
I doubt there were any bad intentions on OPs part, and to them a warning probably would have sufficed. But I can understand the opposite position, so I don't think the dismissal is entirely unjustified. Heavy-handed, sure.
Poking holes in certain details is nice and fun but ultimately not really all that important. For example, whether HR talked to them in 1 day or 3 is a detail, it's not critical to the case. And that they never argued their wrongful dismissal case on freedom of speech grounds is irrelevant. They likely already found that they weren't fired for organizing a union (or at least, there's no evidence that that is the reason presented here), so the next best defense is protected speech (which this also isn't).
Agree with this. Never ever talk about personal stuff or controversial stuff on company equipment, and have a separate "identity" for anything exciting in real life, and then a nice boring dull "identity" in personal life. No one except my very immediate family knows anything about the real me. Heck, most of my family doesn't even know where I live. Just the way I like it! I'm vague, or outright deceitful to most around me. It's awesome and keeps me out of the very trouble OP is in.
I can see how the company would raise an eyebrow with the violence conversation. I would never have said any of that to fellow workers.
That said, OP, that sucks. I have no advice for you. I've never even been fired in my life, so I can't image how much that sucks. Stay strong, and I hope you win!