Activision Blizzard shareholders urged not to re-elect board members following “inexcusable passivity”

SOC Investment Group has written an open letter to Activision Blizzard shareholders, urging voters not to re-elect six board members, including CEO Bobby Kotick.

As spotted by GI.bizthe letter comes ahead of Activision Blizzard’s annual meeting on June 21 and campaigns to remove Bobby Kotick, Brian Kelly, Robert Morgado, Robert Corti, Barry Meyer and Peter Nolan from their positions.

“Each of these administrators failed to acknowledge that Activision Blizzard has for years maintained unsafe workplaces with frequent and repeated instances of sexual harassment, sexual assault, and gender discrimination, or to appropriately address the company’s “brotherhood” culture once it was publicly disclosed by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) in its ongoing lawsuit, which was filed in July 2021, ” the damning letter declares.

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On July 20, 2021, the DFEH filed its lawsuit against Activision Blizzard for “widespread sexual harassment and discriminatory practices” within the company.

“As shareholders await the assessment of the merger with Microsoft by anti-trust regulators, it is incumbent on them to hold these current directors accountable for their multiple failures to act and the reputational damage and stock price decline. resulting action.”

The SOC Investment Group “works with union-sponsored pension funds affiliated with the Strategic Organizing Center, a coalition of four unions representing more than four million members, to improve long-term shareholder value through active ownership” . He claims to have “over $250 billion in assets under management” and are “substantial shareholders of Activision.”

“After July 20, 2021, Activision Blizzard shareholders turned to the Board of Directors to take ownership of the company’s situation, demonstrate a mastery of the facts and a desire for improvement, assess how the Board had allowed working conditions in the company to deteriorate so profoundly and establish a process to ensure that in the future the Board has the information necessary to recognize and promptly address harassment, predation and harassment. discrimination in the workplace,” he added.

“Instead, for many months, shareholders were met with silence. It was not until mid-November 2021 that a statement from the board of directors was made available, and that statement was superficial at best, did not clarify open issues such as when before July 20 the board became aware of the company’s issues and set up a new board committee focused on workplace culture that does not has not yet taken publicly visible action.

“This degree of passivity would be disappointing for any board, but given the gravity of the situation at Activision, it has been inexcusable.”

ICYMI, a a new group of employees within Activision Blizzard has been formed to fight for workers’ rights.

The Workers’ Committee Against Sex and Gender Discrimination was founded by 12 current and former staff members, including prominent ABetterABK member Jessica Gonzalez, and presented a list of demands to beleaguered boss Bobby Kotick .

Issues raised include improving private breastfeeding areas, ending undocumented meetings with HR, improving support for transgender employees, two additional weeks of paid parental leave (up to 12 weeks) and the need for independent investigations into allegations of discrimination.