Unions slam Bobby Kotick’s claims that Activision Blizzard harassment reports were “fake”

The Communication Workers Of America (CWA) has slammed former Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick’s claims that the numerous reports of harassment that allegedly took place when he was led the firm were “fake.”

“Bobby Kotick’s comments on a podcast uplifting billionaires are both insulting to the Activision workers who spoke out about the harassment they faced and unsurprising,” a CWA spokesperson told RPS in an emailed statement. “Fortunately for workers, Kotick is gone and thousands of workers have organized unions with CWA without intimidation or interference and now have a voice at work.”

In a wide-ranging interview on the Grit podcast, Kotick also said the petition that called for his resignation signed by 1300 employees was “fake” and intimated CWA initiated the complaints after it “started looking at technology” and “were losing members at a really dramatic rate.”

In July 2021, The California Department of Fair Employment and Housing filed a lawsuit against Activision Blizzard, accusing the company of fostering a culture of harassment and discrimination against women. Then, in November of the same year, The Wall Street Journal published a report that alleged Kotick knew of sexual misconduct at Activision Blizzard for years.

In May 2023, Kotick blamed the firm’s image problems not on a toxic workplace culture that spawned numerous gender discrimination lawsuits from former employees and state and federal agencies alike, but “outside forces” and unionization supporters. By December, Kotick announced he was stepping down after 30 years.

“The claims Bobby Kotick presents in the podcast regarding the ‘fake lawsuits’ are false,” a CWA spokesperson told RPS in an emailed statement.

“In 2021, Activision agreed to an $18 million dollar settlement with the EEOC following a lawsuit that Activision had sexually harassed and discriminated against its workforce. Bobby Kotick himself apologized in his own press release for the inappropriate conduct that happened under his watch.

“Alongside the settlement money, Activision also agreed to provide anti-harassment and anti-discrimination trainings, expand mental health counseling services to its workers, and provide victim-specific relief, as outlined in the EEOC’s release on March 3, 2022,” the statement added.

“Subsequently, in 2023, Activision reached a $54 million dollar settlement with the California Civil Rights Department (which was formerly known as the California State Department of Fair Employment and Housing, as Kotick references in the podcast) for discriminating against women in the workplace and for pay inequities.”

“The trauma, discrimination, and abuse that our coworkers and former coworkers endured is not fake or a ‘plan to drive union membership’,” added ABetterABK.

“Our unions were born from the very real and harmful way executives reacted when made aware of these situations.

“The executives of our company did not protect us, and often made the situation worse or directly perpetuated the harm. That is why we decided to stand up for ourselves and make our company better, a place where we truly lived by our core values and looked out for one another.

“A common misinformation tactic used by companies during a union campaign is to assert that a union is a third party that comes in and makes changes. This is not true. The workers are the union,” the statement concluded.

“We are not a third party looking for companies to prey on. We are workers with a vested interest in making our company the best it can be.”