NLRB slaps down Activision's attempt to stop another union

Video game maker Activision-Blizzard's attempts to stop a second group of quality assurance employees for unionizing has been slapped down by the National Labor Relations Board, clearing the way for an organizing vote at the company's Albany, New York offices. The NLRB had already given Albany QA workers the go-ahead to …

[aerogems]

Good to see

It's good to see 1) union memberships seemingly on the rise, and 2) the NLRB actually protecting workers trying to organize.

[theOtherJT]

Can someone explain to a non-American...

...how the employer has any legal power to prevent it's employees unionizing? It would seem to me that they don't really get any say in the matter, and at least on this side of the pond firing an employee for joining a union would get you a very quick unfair dismissal lawsuit that the employee would be certain to win.

[Headley_Grange]

Re: Can someone explain to a non-American...

I think that the point of the article is that this is not legal. Loosely speaking, a group of workers can be represented by a union if a majority of them vote for it. Activision is trying to make the case that these QA workers don't form a distinct group and so they can't vote to join a union. Implicitly, if they want to join a union they'll have to get the bigger groups, which Activision says they are part of, to vote to join a union, which might be harder to achieve.

[Dave@Home]

Re: Can someone explain to a non-American...

I think it's more around the ability of the union members to form a collective bargaining group.

Even here, you can join a union, but the company don;t have to negotiate with them unless you can demonstrate a certian percentage of a group are memebrs.