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

System · October 2020

Unions That Represent Blizzards Versailles Office Workers Call for Strike to Protest Closure | MMORPG.com

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".

Read the full story here

WhiteLantern · October 2020

Ya, not seeing how going on strike will save an already doomed job. No leverage.

Devon · October 2020

The French are great at protecting the worker, but.. corporations get away with planetary leeching and enslavement with no fear of wars or deaths, not even prison sentences. What can you do? Well.. maybe say you cant come here unless you agree to..

*shrug*
Best of luck to them in the newest mentioned fight in the people vs the corporate overlords.

Iselin · October 2020

I'm normally very much pro union and worker's rights but going on strike and losing pay when you're about to lose your paycheck permanently doesn't make much sense to me.

Aeander · October 2020

WhiteLantern said:

Ya, not seeing how going on strike will save an already doomed job. No leverage.

I was about to say. Isn't this a case of "you can't fire me, I quit?"

Sovrath · October 2020

Europe has very strict laws when it comes to "firing" an employee so it's not as easy as "hey, you no longer work here."

alkarionlog · October 2020

really smart, lets do a trike to keep our jobs, its a serious the one who though of it are the smart person in the world

Devon said:

The French are great at protecting the worker, but.. corporations get away with planetary leeching and enslavement with no fear of wars or deaths, not even prison sentences. What can you do? Well.. maybe say you cant come here unless you agree to..

*shrug*

Best of luck to them in the newest mentioned fight in the people vs the corporate overlords.

Sovrath said:

Europe has very strict laws when it comes to "firing" an employee so it's not as easy as "hey, you no longer work here."

not when you close a bussiness, in this case, closing a branch, there is no protection when there is no job to do anymore, at most you pay they due and of you go, maybe a compensation for firing from the employer without a cause, but you can't force someone keep someone if they don't want, even worse, if there is no job anymore, so yeah nothing will save then, maybe IF that office had a good source of work, but if that was the case they wouldn't close, and if there is anyone who are worth to keep they will send a personal offer.

plus french work laws are garbage, if possible company tend to evade building office there, only when the benefit surpass the problems or the employer live there

Quizzical · October 2020

Sovrath said:

Europe has very strict laws when it comes to "firing" an employee so it's not as easy as "hey, you no longer work here."

That's true of some places in Europe, but not all. But making it very difficult to fire workers makes companies hesitant to hire them in the first place--and leads to decisions like closing offices and laying off all of the employees. That's among the reasons why it has been more than 25 years since France has had their unemployment rate drop below 7%.

Kyleran · October 2020

Sovrath said:

Europe has very strict laws when it comes to "firing" an employee so it's not as easy as "hey, you no longer work here."

Apparently it's easier just to shut the entire office down and move any remaining operations to the location which just did a Brexit.

Wizardry · October 2020

This is a game being played by top execs trying to cut costs instead of improving their games.These top execs will quickly cut employee costs if it means a bigger incentive increase,bonuses wage increease.

There are bonuses awarded to top execs and they need to see increases to receive incentive awards and large salary increases.Here is an article that talks about what we already know,low wages including employees skipping meals so they can afford to pay rent all while Kotick was awarded 40 million.

There is even an employee who talks about making LESS money than he/she did 10 years ago.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-08-03/blizzard-workers-share-salaries-in-revolt-over-wage-disparities

Wizardry · October 2020

What people should realize is the Blizzard stock has increased,profits soared,so there is NO logical reasoning to job cuts,except for the reasons I stated.

In this graph you can see how much Blizzard stock has risen,shares avg around 11 at 10 years ago are now 70.So this business is making a lot of money but somehow laying off employees seems warranted lol.

https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/ATVI/activision-blizzard/stock-price-history

JeroKane · October 2020

Sovrath said:

Europe has very strict laws when it comes to "firing" an employee so it's not as easy as "hey, you no longer work here."

Yes, but when they close down the office. That's it. There are no protections in place for that, if the company has a valid reason to close down the office.

mmolou · October 2020

JeroKane said:

Sovrath said:

Europe has very strict laws when it comes to "firing" an employee so it's not as easy as "hey, you no longer work here."

Yes, but when they close down the office. That's it. There are no protections in place for that, if the company has a valid reason to close down the office.

They are basically making everyone redundant, as long as they pay staff what they are owed, plus redundancy based on how many years they have been employed, legally they are fine.

Sucks for the staff, especially trying to find another job right now with covid, but it is what it is.

JeroKane · October 2020

Wizardry said:

This is a game being played by top execs trying to cut costs instead of improving their games.These top execs will quickly cut employee costs if it means a bigger incentive increase,bonuses wage increease.

There are bonuses awarded to top execs and they need to see increases to receive incentive awards and large salary increases.Here is an article that talks about what we already know,low wages including employees skipping meals so they can afford to pay rent all while Kotick was awarded 40 million.

There is even an employee who talks about making LESS money than he/she did 10 years ago.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-08-03/blizzard-workers-share-salaries-in-revolt-over-wage-disparities

Blizzard doesn't exist anymore except for it's name. It's all ActiVision now and all they care about is the bottom line.

There is a good reason why Bungie tried (and succeeded) to cut ties with ActiVision.

ActiVision's core focus is increasing their bottom line as much as possible to please shareholders and line the pockets of the Top Execs!
They are more focused in hiring phycologists to help create the most addictive cash shops and loot boxes in their games, then hiring competent developers in creating a good game.
The game itself is just an after thought. Cash Shops and loot boxes is what matters for them for quick cash grabs!

That's why they fired 800 QA positions at Blizzard last year. Result is that Shadowlands has been postponed and the Pre-Patch that landed on the WoW live servers today is one big cluster F#ck up of Epic proportions!

I am so glad I didn't pre-order Shadowlands expac and after seeing the state of the Pre-Patch today, I immediately canceled my subscription to WoW and uninstalled the game!

ActiVision can shove up their @rse! I am done, as Shadowlands won't launch this year. That pretty much is a given.

Who knows. Maybe WoW has reached a point in that it doesn't bring in enough cash for ActiVision anymore for them to bother and they just dump the expac at the end of the year no matter what state it's in.
Result might very well be that's the end and the last expac we will see for WoW or finally turn it into a F2P cash "grab" shop game to milk it as long as they can.

bcbully · October 2020

Bless them and those who come after.

sk8chalif · October 2020

Bobby Kotick does not need 40 million a years lol

Gorwe · October 2020

Wizardry said:

This is a game being played by top execs trying to cut costs instead of improving their games.These top execs will quickly cut employee costs if it means a bigger incentive increase,bonuses wage increease.

There are bonuses awarded to top execs and they need to see increases to receive incentive awards and large salary increases.Here is an article that talks about what we already know,low wages including employees skipping meals so they can afford to pay rent all while Kotick was awarded 40 million.

There is even an employee who talks about making LESS money than he/she did 10 years ago.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-08-03/blizzard-workers-share-salaries-in-revolt-over-wage-disparities

While I don't like the way it's set up, let's pause and think for a moment. Do they need that office any more or is it just costing them needless expenses? This isn't like working for the State where even silly jobs are kept. This is wide open market and there is just one goal and rule there: PROFIT.

It makes perfect sense to close or reduce the underperforming offices. Cut the losses and everything. And strike won't do anything because the job won't exist anymore.

As for Kotick, yes he and his ilk are super scumbags and I really want to see them hurt in some way, but he works for % of total revenue ; he plays by an entirely different ruleset. And that's what bothers me: that there exists a ruleset for a worker and for a CEO that are NOT even similar and that are more lax on the CEO side. Look, a rule is a rule, it should be the same for everyone, with very few select exceptions(ideally none, but reality does require some).

Scot · October 2020

Kyleran said:

Sovrath said:

Europe has very strict laws when it comes to "firing" an employee so it's not as easy as "hey, you no longer work here."

Apparently it's easier just to shut the entire office down and move any remaining operations to the location which just did a Brexit.

The UK welcoming companies, good personnel and entrepreneurs moving to us from France has been a trend longer than I can remember.

evolgrinz · October 2020

Blizzard/Activision: "We are closing the Versailles office."
Versailles office: "How about we stop working now?"
Blizzard/Activision: "OK, guess we can close the Versailles office earlier."

JeroKane · October 2020

OG_Zorvan said:

evolgrinz said:

Blizzard/Activision: "We are closing the Versailles office."

Versailles office: "How about we stop working now?"

Blizzard/Activision: "OK, guess we can close the Versailles office earlier."

This. ^

How fucking stupid does someone have to be to go "Oh, I'm going to be jobless soon. Instead of at least keeping money coming in while looking for a new job, and being able to have a good reference, I'll instead go to my workplace and stand around for free while still needing to find a new job but now without a good reference ( while there are laws in many places forbidding "bad" references, most companies know that simply only providing the name and amount of time the employee was with the company with no other details provided is the loophole around this ) and now also having no money coming in at all."

This is just standard fare in France. Hence, why so many international companies have bailed out and moved their operations elsewhere.

No international company in their right mind would open an office, let alone move operations to France, unless they really have to.

Holland, UK and Ireland are far better and more popular options.

Horusra · October 2020

OG_Zorvan said:

evolgrinz said:

Blizzard/Activision: "We are closing the Versailles office."

Versailles office: "How about we stop working now?"

Blizzard/Activision: "OK, guess we can close the Versailles office earlier."

This. ^

How fucking stupid does someone have to be to go "Oh, I'm going to be jobless soon. Instead of at least keeping money coming in while looking for a new job, and being able to have a good reference, I'll instead go to my workplace and stand around for free while still needing to find a new job but now without a good reference ( while there are laws in many places forbidding "bad" references, most companies know that simply only providing the name and amount of time the employee was with the company with no other details provided is the loophole around this ) and now also having no money coming in at all."

You can get around the bad references easy by asking if they former company would hire the employee again...

Vrika · October 2020

OG_Zorvan said:

evolgrinz said:

Blizzard/Activision: "We are closing the Versailles office."

Versailles office: "How about we stop working now?"

Blizzard/Activision: "OK, guess we can close the Versailles office earlier."

This. ^

How fucking stupid does someone have to be to go "Oh, I'm going to be jobless soon. Instead of at least keeping money coming in while looking for a new job, and being able to have a good reference, I'll instead go to my workplace and stand around for free while still needing to find a new job but now without a good reference ( while there are laws in many places forbidding "bad" references, most companies know that simply only providing the name and amount of time the employee was with the company with no other details provided is the loophole around this ) and now also having no money coming in at all."

You don't lose possible good reference if the whole office goes on strike. At least not in EU area.

The strike is pointless because they don't have any realistic chance of being able to keep the office open that way, but if they want to go to a strike do demonstrate how unhappy they are, in a situation like this it doesn't cause that much losses to anyone.

Vrika · October 2020

JeroKane said:

Sovrath said:

Europe has very strict laws when it comes to "firing" an employee so it's not as easy as "hey, you no longer work here."

Yes, but when they close down the office. That's it. There are no protections in place for that, if the company has a valid reason to close down the office.

There is some protection that force the company to give notice in advance. But all that protection does is it gives employees some time to adjust to their new situation before the work ends. Companies are allowed to close offices down completely and terminate all employees.

Kyleran · October 2020

Scot said:

Kyleran said:

Sovrath said:

Europe has very strict laws when it comes to "firing" an employee so it's not as easy as "hey, you no longer work here."

Apparently it's easier just to shut the entire office down and move any remaining operations to the location which just did a Brexit.

The UK welcoming companies, good personnel and entrepreneurs moving to us from France has been a trend longer than I can remember.

Yes, I know, the firm I work for has most of its EU operations based out of the UK in large part due to much more flexibility in the workforce along along with being mostly English speaking. (Debatable when it comes to the Scottish office)

My peers in the UK work under very similar hours and conditions as we do here in the US, just with slightly better benefits in terms of vacation and leave time for maternity or medical reasons.

One thing which is consistent at the firm is regardless where one is employed, be it in the US, UK, India, China, Japan or Australia, no one in technology or operations work less than 40 hours and many log quite a few more, all unpaid of course.

Oh yeah, and I'm pretty sure the CEO earns more than Bobby.

Hard work, it's just what some of us do, but hey, beats working in a coal mine

cheyane · October 2020

Kyleran said:

Scot said:

Kyleran said:

Sovrath said:

Europe has very strict laws when it comes to "firing" an employee so it's not as easy as "hey, you no longer work here."

Apparently it's easier just to shut the entire office down and move any remaining operations to the location which just did a Brexit.

The UK welcoming companies, good personnel and entrepreneurs moving to us from France has been a trend longer than I can remember.

Yes, I know, the firm I work for has most of its EU operations based out of the UK in large part due to much more flexibility in the workforce along along with being mostly English speaking. (Debatable when it comes to the Scottish office)

My peers in the UK work under very similar hours and conditions as we do here in the US, just with slightly better benefits in terms of vacation and leave time for maternity or medical reasons.

One thing which is consistent at the firm is regardless where one is employed, be it in the US, UK, India, China, Japan or Australia, no one in technology or operations work less than 40 hours and many log quite a few more, all unpaid of course.

Oh yeah, and I'm pretty sure the CEO earns more than Bobby.

Hard work, it's just what some of us do, but hey, beats working in a coal mine

Did you say working in a coal mine? Can't let that go without...

Kyleran · October 2020

cheyane said:

Kyleran said:

Scot said:

Kyleran said:

Sovrath said:

Europe has very strict laws when it comes to "firing" an employee so it's not as easy as "hey, you no longer work here."

Apparently it's easier just to shut the entire office down and move any remaining operations to the location which just did a Brexit.

The UK welcoming companies, good personnel and entrepreneurs moving to us from France has been a trend longer than I can remember.

Yes, I know, the firm I work for has most of its EU operations based out of the UK in large part due to much more flexibility in the workforce along along with being mostly English speaking. (Debatable when it comes to the Scottish office)

My peers in the UK work under very similar hours and conditions as we do here in the US, just with slightly better benefits in terms of vacation and leave time for maternity or medical reasons.

One thing which is consistent at the firm is regardless where one is employed, be it in the US, UK, India, China, Japan or Australia, no one in technology or operations work less than 40 hours and many log quite a few more, all unpaid of course.

Oh yeah, and I'm pretty sure the CEO earns more than Bobby.

Hard work, it's just what some of us do, but hey, beats working in a coal mine

Did you say working in a coal mine? Can't let that go without...

Well, seeing how it's Fallout 76 I have to go with 16 tons.

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

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Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV

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

Comments

Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV

Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV

Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV