Raven Software QA's strike has ended

The strike at Raven Software's Wisconsin offices came to a quiet end last Saturday. In a tweet from worker organization group A Better ABK Workers Alliance, strike organizers declared that "pending the recognition of our union, the Raven QA strike has ended. Unused strike funds are being stored for future organizing/strike efforts."

It would appear that the strike is being wound down while the QA team goes through the process of attempting to form a union at Activision Blizzard. 

It's unclear of the original strike goal of securing better conditions for QA workers, and restoring the employment of laid-off testers was achieved.

Questions about the strike's momentum began to arise after Microsoft announced it intends to purchase Activision Blizzard. Based on the now-known timeline (acquisition talks apparently began in November), one wonders if the layoffs were part of the broader spreadsheet shuffling needed to initiate the purchasing process. At the time, Activision Blizzard said the layoffs were necessary in order to convert another 500 temporary workers into full-time employees. 

The strike's conclusion should definitely not be seen as a defeat for employees. The group's flexibility in pivoting from striking to unionizing shows that there's much more to come for Activision Blizzard employees.