Laid-off EA workers at LSU allege retaliation for union efforts

BY PIPER HUTCHINSON Louisiana Illuminator

Some of the 200 Electronic Arts video game testers laid off Tuesday from the company’s facility at LSU say it was retaliation for organizing a union. Employees were given no advance notice of the layoffs.

Several quality assurance testers granted interviews with the Illuminator on the condition they not be identified because they fear further retaliation for violating their non-disclosure agreements. The Illuminator has verified the individuals interviewed were EA employees.

The employees said their colleagues at the Baton Rouge facility had been working on organizing a union for several months. One tester said a worker was terminated in November after discussing the benefits of unionization on an interoffice messaging system that supervisors could access.

After the termination of his coworker, the tester said things at work changed.

Several outgoing testers told the Illuminator they were expected to train other quality assurance testers in the United Kingdom and Romania who were likely their replacements. In the months leading up to the layoffs, they said their workloads gradually dwindled. By the start of 2023, documents and test cases that Baton Rouge work- ers had handled were marked “EAUK-Only” or “EARO-Only” to reflect the location of testers in the U.K. and Romania.

“For a handful of months, they slowly transitioned all of our responsibilities to international teams while our union efforts were growing,” one laid-off tester said.

“Some former employees, including myself, believe that EA and Magnit learning of our union plans, EAUK/EARO gradually taking our responsibilities and the sudden layoffs are related,” he added.

The laid-off workers, contracted by EA through third-party workforce management firm Magnit Global, were given 60 days severance pay.

EA provided a statement to the Illuminator in response to questions about whether the layoffs in Baton Rouge were related to the unionization efforts.

“As part of our ongoing global strategy, we are expanding the distribution of our Apex Legends testing team and ending testing execution that’s been concentrated in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, impacting services provided by our third-party provider,” an EA spokesperson said. “Our global team, inclusive of remote playtesters across the U.S., enables us to increase the hours per week we’re able to test and optimize the game and reflects a commitment to understand and better serve our growing community around the world.”

School, so it’s a great opportunity.” other title. we take these skills and seeing the direct results of them.”

The LSU team took first place in the competition in 2018. Ravain said she’s hoping to place in the finals and help spread the awareness of news literacy.

Ravain said she first learned about the LSU’s Bateman team during her sophomore year and that she was always interested in getting involved. She was also inspired by her mother, who placed second in a similar Manship competition at LSU.

“I’m so thankful that the team trusts me with this role,” Ravain said. “I love all things organization, event planning and implementing all of the PR tools that we’ve learned here at the Manship

CONSTRUCTION, from page 3 ing greater and better, then it’s worth it,” mechanical engineering freshman Gabe Freedman said.

But for many students, the redesign adds another layer to LSU’s on-campus parking issues,

LAWMAKERS, from page 3 of controversy in Louisiana, spurred on by Attorney General Jeff Landry, who set up a “Protecting Minors” tip line in 2022 to collect complaints about librarians and other school staff.

Mass communication professor Doug Draper has served as LSU’s Bateman team faculty advisor for three years. He said he has one more year left before closing the chapter.

“It’s always fun and a lot of hard work, but it’s a great challenge while working with the best students of the Manship School and the public relations area to do something extraordinary, so it’s been a lot of fun for me,” Draper said.

Draper said the biggest part of leading a successful team is selecting the right people. He said deciding who to keep is always a hard choice, but when it comes down to it, he picks the people who will best help LSU gain an- where demand for parking often exceeds the supply of parking available. Many students that try to park on campus are often forced to patrol parking lots for exceedingly long periods of time, and some risk an illegal park just to make it to class on time.

The tip line has fielded thousands of memes and joke responses. Some library professionals feel the tip line and similar efforts are solutions in search of a problem, according to the Louisiana Illuminator.

State Sen. Heather Miley

Louisiana Economic Development (LED) has reported employment reaching as high as 500 workers at EA’s LSU facility. No information was provided from the company on the number of people still employed there.

Another tester at the company said she became aware of the unionization efforts after meeting with a representative with the Industrial Workers of the World, an international labor union with multiple chapters in the United States. The layoffs were a perfect example of why workers felt the need to organize, she said.

Erika Zucker, a labor lawyer who works as a policy advocate with the Workplace Justice Project, said it would be a violation of federal labor laws to retaliate against workers for unionizing, but that it’s an uphill battle for impacted employees to prove charges and receive relief.

“The challenge of labor laws in the U.S. is that we have a process, but we don’t have remedies available to workers that effectively keep employers from taking action,” Zucker said.

If workers believe they have been retaliated against, they can file complaints against their employers with the National Labor Relations Board.

Zucker said there are no financial incentives for employers not to retaliate against workers. While employers could be ordered to re -

“I’m extremely confident this team can win it all. They’ve got a great plan, they’ve been working hard,” Draper said. “We started with the research process back in October, and we haven’t really stopped working since. All I can say is that if you look for Bateman team on somebody’s application, you’re looking at one of the best students you’re going to find coming out of college.”

Sasha Bourne, a public relations senior on the Bateman team, said she joined the team after hearing Draper talk about it during a class she took with him during the fall semester.

Bourne felt the team would be an opportunity to strengthen the skills she’s learned at Manship.

“I think it’s a great opportu-

A walk through any oncampus parking lot yields the chance of seeing the yellow $300 ticket on a windshield or even a yellow tire boot, which has become increasingly common as the parking services continue to crack down on illegal parking.

The issue is compounded

Cloud, a Republican from Turkey Creek, proposed a law in step with Landry.

“Many libraries lack adequate policies addressing the access of minors to sexually explicit materials,” the law reads. “In furtherance of this fundamental right, hire workers, the former employees might not want to rejoin the company, she said.

“I would never say to a worker not to take action because nothing ever happens without action,” Zucker said. “But it’s not an incredibly effective system.” nity to leave a legacy here at LSU, so after I graduate that will be like a piece of something I can look back on and say I achieved,” Bourne said.

The mass layoffs came as a shock to the community. EA first partnered with LSU in 2008 and then expanded its workforce when it moved onto a $30 million publicly-funded facility on campus. The facility was considered a feather in Baton Rouge’s cap as the city marketed itself as a burgeoning technology hub.

The company has participated in the state’s digital media incentive program since 2008, garnering $28.67 million in tax credits, according to LED spokesperson Ron Thibodeaux.

Thibodeaux said the state has not yet certified tax credits for the company’s 2021 or 2022 expenses.

“Louisiana remains committed to aggressively pursuing companies that can provide quality digital media, software and tech jobs for our workforce,” Thibodeaux said.

An EA spokesperson said the Baton Rouge facility will remain open, although the company declined to comment as to their plans for the facility.

Cody Worsham, a spokesperson for LSU, did not respond to requests for comment on the future of LSU’s partnership with EA.

Bourne said this campaign is not just for LSU students, but for all to understand the importance of news literacy.

“News literacy is important because it affects your daily life, it affects the way you view the world,” Bourne said. “If you have the skills you need to consume news, you’ll be less likely to fall victim to fake news and you’ll be a little bit more knowledgeable about how to interact with certain things.”

Public relations senior Sebastian Canales is also a member of the Bateman team and said he loves putting his skills to good by LSU continuing to bring in increasingly larger freshmen classes each year. The university had 6,690 freshmen in 2020, 7,038 in 2021, and 7,637 in 2022, each year breaking the record set before it, according to LSU’s website.

“If you’re going to bring it is the intent of the legislature to require libraries to adopt and implement policy language to limit the access of minors to sexually explicit materials.”

The law would require libraries to adopt policies “to limit the access of minors to sexually use.

“I have a love for public relations and being able to help a nonprofit out,” Canales said. Canales said misinformation is a constant threat to democracy and it’s important for the public to be educated on news literacy. That’s where the name of their campaign – “Information is Power: Plug In” – came from, he said.

“The whole point of our campaign is to really let people know who the News Literacy Project is, what they do, as well as teaching the public skills to decipher fake news,” Canales said. “Being able to go talk to someone that doesn’t know exactly what news literacy is or who the News Literacy Project is, and being able to educate them is something that is really rewarding.” in the biggest freshman class ever and then not provide the parking, then demolish even more parking to just have more greenspace even though we have a ton of greenspace, it just seems silly to me,” mass communications freshman Michael Fontenot said. explicit material.” That policy would include “a library card system that allows a parent or guardian to select a library card that indicates whether a minor is permitted to check out sexually explicit material physically available in the library.”