Microsoft recognizes 7 trade unions representing 1,750 workers in the United States at its video game subsidiaries Activision Blizzard and ZeniMax Media. US workers have been vocal in opposing military and law-enforcement contracts with Microsoft.
Bethesda Game Studios is unionized in Canada. Microsoft South Korea recognizes its union since 2017. German employees have elected works councils since 1998.
Montreal studio of Bethesda Game Studios was certified on August 13, 2024 with support of Communications Workers of America Canada.[1] This follows the recent unionization of QA testers at ZeniMax, its parent company in the United States.[2]
Microsoft Germany has 2,700 employees and 6 offices across Germany as of 2014. Employees are represented by local works councils and a central works council since 1998.[3]
Microsoft recognizes 7 video game unions[α] that represent 1,750 video game workers.[4]
Microsoft like other tech companies, was historically resistant to unions and relied on temporary workers with lower pay and job security than regular employees. Microsoft shifted in 2014 when Brad Smith, the new general counsel at Microsoft was appointed. Smith had a more conciliatory approach towards regulation, including labor rights together with the new CEO Satya Nadella. In 2015, Microsoft instructed all large contractors to provide paid time off.[5]
When Microsoft announced its intent to acquire Activision Blizzard in a $70 billion deal in 2022, there was a pragmatic risk that Communications Workers of America (CWA) would oppose the acquisition if Microsoft did not recognize the ongoing union efforts at Activision.[5]
Microsoft signed a labor neutrality agreement with CWA to neither interfere with nor oppose unionization efforts of its workers including at its video game subsidiaries Activision Blizzard and ZeniMax Media. The neutrality agreement was a key condition for CWA to support Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard. After the acquisition, Microsoft inherited two small video game unions from subsidiaries Raven Software and Blizzard Albany. Post acquisition, Microsoft later on voluntarily recognized 5 video game unions at ZeniMax Studios and Activision Blizzard. 3 prior union drives at TaxSaver software and Lionbridge were not successful.
A small group of 18 agency contractors at TaxSaver software declared itself the "negotiating unit" in April 1999 and became union-dues paying members of Washington Alliance of Technology Workers.[6]: 372–373
Joint employment law would require their bargaining unit to be recognized by both Microsoft and TaxSaver which neither did. Despite formally not engaging in collective bargaining, the TaxSaver unit saw wage increases. One year later Microsoft switched to H&R Block, resulting in a loss of jobs for the TaxSaver unit.[6]: 372–373
38 software testers who were contracted by Lionbridge formed the union "Temporary Workers Alliance" in 2014. Microsoft explicitly did not negotiate with them, yet they instructed Lionbridge to provide at least 3 weeks of vacation for all contractors.[7] In 2016, Lionbridge announced layoffs, two months after the union ratified their first collective agreement. As part of the negotiations, the union had agreed to drop a joint employer case between them and Lionbridge and Microsoft.[8]
In May 2022, Quality Assurance (QA) testers of Activision Blizzard subsidiary Raven Software went public as "Game Workers Alliance" (GWA) with the support of Campaign to Organize Digital Employees-CWA and voted to unionize (19–2) in favor.[9] The National Labor Relations Board certified GWA as a union.[10][11]
Following the Raven QA team's successful unionization, the 20-member QA team of Blizzard Albany announced a unionization drive in July 2022 as GWA Albany.[12] The vote passed (14–0), forming the second union at an Activision Blizzard subsidiary.[13]
On March 8, 2024, 600 QA testers at 3 Activision studios in Austin, Texas, Eden Prairie, Minnesota and El Segundo, California formed the union "Activision Quality Assurance United-CWA" and voted to unionize (390–8) in favor, making it the largest video game union in the United States.[14][15]
In June 2024, an unfair labor practice was filed against Lionbridge by CWA alleging that the company illegally terminated the employment of 160 Activision software testers in Boise, Idaho, in retaliation for exercising their right to participate in concerted union activities. As part of the layoff, CWA also alleges that workers were required to sign an overly broad confidentiality agreement and an illegal waiver of certain rights protected by the National Labor Relations Act.[16]
On July 24, 2024, 500 artists, designers, engineers, producers, and quality assurance testers who work on World of Warcraft voted to unionize. This is the second "wall to wall" union (following Bethesda Game Studios) to represents all employees in a Microsoft bargaining unit, regardless of their job title.[4]
The same day, 60 QA testers at Blizzard's Austin office, who work on various games including Diablo 4 and Hearthstone, also voted to unionize and formed the union "Texas Blizzard QA United-CWA".[17]
300 QA testers at ZeniMax Studios voted to unionize as "ZeniMax Workers United/CWA" in January 2023. The QA testers review video games like Elder Scrolls Online. Among the issues they wish to improve are equitable pay, workplace communication and ending crunch time.[18]
All four studios of Bethesda Game Studios have union representation with the support of CWA. The unions unions represent all employees in both the United States and Canada respectively. They are the first "wall to wall" unions in Microsoft bargaining units.[19]
241 US employees unionized as "OneBGS" on July 20, 2024. Its three studios are in Austin, Dallas, Texas and Rockville, Maryland.[20] The bargaining unit includes artists, developers, and engineers; unlike its parent company ZeniMax, which exclusively represents QA testers.[19][21] The Montreal, Canada studio of Bethesda Game Studios was union certified on August 13, 2024 with support of the Communications Workers of America Canada.
Employees criticized Microsoft's bid of the JEDI cloud computing contracts in 2018. In February 2019, hundreds of Microsoft employees protested the company's war profiteering from a $480 million contract to develop virtual reality headsets for the United States Army.[22]
100s of Microsoft employees protested their employers government contracts with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in June 2018.[23]
GitHub (subsidiary of Microsoft) had a $200,000 contract with ICE for the use of their on-site product GitHub Enterprise Server. This contract was renewed in 2019, despite internal opposition from many GitHub employees. In an email sent to employees, later posted to the GitHub blog on October 9, 2019, CEO Nat Friedman stated "The revenue from the purchase is less than $200,000 and not financially material for our company." He announced that GitHub had pledged to donate $500,000 to "nonprofit groups supporting immigrant communities targeted by the current administration."[24] In response, at least 150 GitHub employees signed an open letter re-stating their opposition to the contract, and denouncing alleged human rights abuses by ICE. As of November 13, 2019, five workers had resigned over the contract.[25][26][27]
The ICE contract dispute came into focus again in June 2020 due to the company's decision to abandon "master/slave" branch terminology, spurred by the George Floyd protests and Black Lives Matter movement.[28] Detractors of GitHub describe the branch renaming to be a form of performative activism and have urged GitHub to cancel their ICE contract instead.[29] An open letter from members of the open source community was shared on GitHub in December 2019, demanding that the company drop its contract with ICE and provide more transparency into how they conduct business and partnerships. The letter has been signed by more than 700 people.[30]
On March 26, 2019, Chinese tech workers launched a public GitHub (owned by Microsoft) repository "996.ICU" protesting Chinese companies that have 996 working hour culture. "996.ICU" references 9am to 9pm, 6 days a week, ending up in the intensive care unit. In less than a week, over 200,000 users "starred" or liked the repository.[31] This repository has been described as the largest display of solidarity among tech workers.[32]
On April 18, 2019, employees at Microsoft and GitHub launched another GitHub repository in support of 996.ICU, which they believe was under threat of China censorship to ask Microsoft not to censor the original repository.[33]
In the Summer of 2017,[34] 370 workers (half of the total workforce) of Microsoft Korea (South Korea) formed The Microsoft Korea Worker's Union.[35] It is led by Lee Ok-Hyoung, and affiliated to the Korea Confederation of Trade Union.[36][β]
On November 24, 2021, 90% of the union membership voted to go on strike over long working hours and a 3.5% pay increase that was rejected by the union membership.[35]