CWA union says Bobby Kotick’s “fake lawsuit” claims are false, unsurprising, and “insulting to the Activision workers who spoke out”

Ex Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick’s recent comments on the Grit podcast regarding “fake lawsuits” brought against Activision Blizzard around 2021 are “false”, “insulting” to alleged victims, and “unsurprising”, a spokesperson for the Communications Workers Of America (CWA) has told RPS.

Kotick appeared on venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins podcast earlier this week, alongside former EA CEO and current Kleiner Perkins advisor Bing Gordon. Discussing the above legal cases alongside petitions to remove him as CEO, Kotick spoke of “fake lawsuits against us and Riot Games making allegations about the workplace that weren’t true,” claiming his former company was “targeted” by the CWA in a bid to increase union membership.

“The claims Bobby Kotick presents in the podcast regarding the “fake lawsuits” are false,” the CWA spokesperson told RPS in an emailed statement that includes links to past correspondence and reporting. “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.”

“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.”

For additional context: following the settlement, the state department said that “no court or any independent investigation has substantiated any allegations [of] systemic or widespread sexual harassment at Activision Blizzard”. In a comment made to RPS at the time, Activision Blizzard spokesperson added that “the CRD (previously DFEH) has acknowledged that no court or independent investigation substantiated any allegations that ‘Activision Blizzard’s Board of Directors, including its Chief Executive Officer, Robert Kotick, acted improperly with regard to the handling of any instances of workplace misconduct.’” Kotick himself has denied any personal wrongdoing.

“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,” the CWA say in their statement about Kotick’s claims this week. “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.”

You can read our interview on how the CWA helps developers unionise.

In addition to the CWA’s comment to RPS, the ABK Worker’s Alliance – a union made up of Activision Blizzard King employees – has responded publicly to Kotick’s podcast allegations via social media. “The trauma, discrimination, and abuse that our coworkers and former coworkers endured is not fake or a ‘plan to drive union membership’,” reads a tweet from last night. “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,” they continue. “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,” the ABK union statement goes on. “This is not true. The workers are the union.”

“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.”