Activision Blizzard King employees are now circulating a petition on company slack channels to remove CEO Bobby Kotick.
Exactly 48 hours after the second Activision Blizzard walkout, the ABK Workers Alliance has announced that they have created a petition to ask for Bobby Kotick to be removed as CEO.
Activision Blizzard employees petition for Kotick ouster
Activision Blizzard has been crumbling since July, when a lawsuit was filed by the state of California against them after a two-year investigation. A bombshell Wall Street Journal report showed that Kotick not only lied to the board regarding the rampant sexual harassment in the company, but he was also allegedly a participant. Worse, even after the report showed this, the board almost immediately decided to side with him with a rather appalling statement of support.
But the employees of ABK were ready. Within 30 minutes of the article’s release, more than 100 employees walked out of the offices and thousands more joined in support virtually. Furthermore, having lost any and all faith in leadership, they have now announced a petition asking Bobby Kotick to be removed once and for all:
We, the undersigned, no longer have confidence in the leadership of Bobby Kotick as the CEO of Activision Blizzard. The information that has come to light about his behaviors and practices in the running of our companies runs counter to the culture and integrity we require of our leadership--and directly conflicts with the initiatives started by our peers. We ask that Bobby Kotick remove himself as CEO of Activision Blizzard, and that shareholders be allowed to select the new CEO without the input of Bobby, who we are aware owns a substantial portion of the voting rights of the shareholders.
As of publishing time, the petition has over 500 signatures from employees and contractors within Activision Blizzard.
This is yet another example of ABK getting one step closer to unionization since having their first walkout back in July. The final straw seems to be the report along with the treatment of former Blizzard co-head Jen Oneal.
Esports.gg has reached out to Activision Blizzard for comment on the petition.