Following a majority vote to unionize under the Communications Workers of America (CWA), “World of Warcraft” gaming staff at Microsoft have received a show of support from the tech company.
“We continue to support our employees’ right to choose how they are represented in the workplace, and we will engage in good faith negotiations with the CWA as we work towards a collective bargaining agreement,” a spokesperson for Microsoft said Wednesday.
Per Bloomberg, which first reported on the unionizing efforts by “World of Warcraft” employees (who are part of Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard team), the vote adds approximately 500 designers, engineers, producers, artists and quality assurance testers to the total number of Microsoft’s U.S.-based gaming staff that have unionized, now reaching a total of around 1,750 employees.
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This development follows last week’s news that more than 200 staff members at Microsoft’s “Fallout” maker Bethesda Game Studios had unionized.
“We are so excited to announce our union at Bethesda Game Studio and join the movement sweeping across the video game industry,” senior system designer and member of CWA Mandi Parker said in a statement Friday. “It is clear that every worker can benefit from bringing democracy into the workplace and securing a protected voice on the job. We’re thrilled to get down to brass tacks and win a fair contract, proving that our unity is a source of real power to positively shape our working conditions, our lives, and the company as a whole.”
Microsoft has been unusually open to working with unions. As it sought regulatory approval in 2022 to buy Activision Blizzard, the company announced a new set of principles, including a commitment to “collaborative approaches that will make it simpler” for workers to choose whether to unionize.
The promise from Microsoft came on the heels of a 2021 walkout at Activision, when hundreds of employees rallied after the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing filed a complaint against the then-Bobby Kotick-led company’s “frat boy culture” and accusations of harassment.
