Ben Cowles
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THE head of a US video game company where staff staged a walkout last week to demand an end to sexual harassment in the workplace and improved working conditions stepped down today.
Blizzard Entertainment announced that company president J Allen Brack would be replaced by two other executives.
Mr Brack was named in a California lawsuit two weeks ago alleging that he failed to take seriously numerous complaints of harassment, discrimination and retaliation at the firm.
The gaming giant, famous for the Warcraft, Diablo and Overwatch series, said in a statement today that the firm’s new leaders will “ensure Blizzard is the safest, most welcoming workplace possible for women and people of any gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation or background.”
About 200 workers joined the walkout at parent company Activision Blizzard last Thursday, forming the ABK Workers Alliance.
The alliance said that it looked forward to working with the company’s new leaders, while adding that “no one person is responsible for the culture of Blizzard.
“The problems at [Activision Blizzard] go beyond Blizzard and require systemic change. We stand by our demands and we remain committed to taking action until they are met.”
The ABK Workers Alliance published an open letter to Activision Blizzard’s billionaire boss Bobby Kotick on Tuesday condemning his decision to hire union-busting law firm WilmerHale, which has links to one of the company’s top executives, as a third-party auditor of workplace practices.
“WilmerHale has a history of discouraging workers’ rights and collective action,” the letter reads, and “states on [its] public website that [its] services include ‘advising on union awareness and avoidance’.”
The lawyer leading the investigation, Stephanie Avakian, “specialises in protecting the wealthy and powerful,” the alliance said.
“We need legal representation that centres on the concerns of our current employees, rather than investors.”
Activision Blizzard executive vice-president for corporate affairs Frances Townsend — who was a homeland security adviser to former US president George W Bush — “is known to have relationships with multiple partners at WilmerHale, including former FBI director Robert Mueller,” the alliance pointed out.
