Unions That Represent Blizzards Versailles Office Workers Call for Strike to Protest Closure

Last week we reported on a situation where Blizzard / Activision decided they would close their Versailles office, to “adapt” to their needs in a competitive industry. Today, a call to strike has been issued from several unions in an attempt to “defend our jobs and save our company”.

In the call to action request, CTG, SPECIS-UNSA and CFE-CGC have asked employees of the Versailles office that is now planned for closure, to strike, in an attempt to stop the loss of at least 285 jobs. The Unions are attempting to stop the closure altogether, citing Blizzards lack of support through the years and empathy in dealing with the current pandemic as reasons why the office should stay open.

Many of the comments in response to the tweet are in solidarity with the strike. Several commenters have questioned how the strike will accomplish keeping the office open, especially when the post itself points to the decline of Blizzards work conditions, and the lack of training Blizzard has provided over the years, which the unions believe will leave many of the former employees in a tough spot when finding another job.

Recently, Blizzard has released the World of Warcraft Shadowlands pre-patch, though the actual release of Shadowlands has yet to be determined. While this strike likely won’t have much impact on ongoing development of Shadowlands and when it will finally release, we may start to see more players forego playing the new expansion as they stand with those Versailles employees, as some have already chosen to do.