Microsoft and the Communications Workers of
America union announced an agreement June 13 that would make it easier for
employees to unionize at video game-maker Activision Blizzard, which Microsoft
is acquiring for $70 billion.
اضافة اعلان
Under the deal,
which appears to be the first of its kind in the technology industry, Microsoft
agreed to remain neutral if any of Activision’s eligible US employees want to
unionize, and employees would no longer have to petition the
National Labor Relations Board for an election. The company has almost 7,000 employees in the
US, most of whom will be eligible to unionize under the arrangement.
A group of
nearly 30 employees at one of Activision’s studios voted to unionize through an
NLRB election in May despite Activision’s opposition to holding the election.
But completing such a process can be time-consuming, with unions and employers
sometimes spending months or even years litigating the results.
Through the
agreement, workers will have access to an expedited process for unionizing,
overseen by a neutral third party, in which they will indicate their support
for a union either by signing cards or confidentially through an electronic
platform.
“This process
does gives us and Microsoft a way to do this quote unquote election without
spending the time, the effort and the controversy that goes along with an NLRB
election,” said Chris Shelton, president of the Communications Workers union.
The union said
that the neutrality agreement resolved the antitrust concerns it had with the
acquisition and that it now supported the deal, which Microsoft has said will
close by the end of June 2023.
Shelton and
Microsoft President Brad Smith suggested that the deal could pave the way to wider
unionization across the company and the industry. “This is a great opportunity
for us to work with Chris and the CWA and to learn and innovate,” Smith said.
Microsoft said it was prepared to “build on” the deal in the future, but it did
not specifically comment on whether it planned to extend the terms to other
gaming workers at the company.
Microsoft
indicated that under the agreement, it would refrain from an aggressive
anti-union campaign if other
Activision employees sought to unionize. “In
practical terms, it means that we’re not going to try to jump in and put a
thumb on the scale,” Smith said. “We will respect the fact that our employees
are capable of making decisions for themselves and they have a right to do
that.”
The agreement
between Microsoft and the union would also protect workers’ right to
communicate among themselves and with union officials about a union campaign —
something many employers seek to discourage — and stipulates that disagreements
between the company and the union will be resolved through an “expedited
arbitration process.” NLRB complaints can take months or years to resolve.
When Microsoft
and Activision announced their blockbuster deal in January, the game-maker was
under stress as it faced accusations that senior executives had ignored sexual
harassment and discrimination. Those concerns spurred organizing among
Activision employees, including workers at its Raven Software studio in
Wisconsin, which has developed games in popular franchises like
Call of Duty.
After a group of
roughly 30 quality assurance, or QA, workers announced that they were seeking
to unionize, Activision sought to convince the federal labor board that their
election should not go forward. The game workers accused Activision of
union-busting tactics, like increasing the pay of non-Raven QA workers and
splitting QA workers up by embedding them across the Raven studio.
Activision
maintained that while some changes in this vein came after the union campaign
went public, the broader shift in approach had already been underway.
The company
argued that the entire Raven studio, comprising hundreds of workers, should
have been allowed to vote on forming a union, rather than just a few dozen QA
workers. QA employees, often on temporary contracts, are commonly considered
the most overworked and underpaid members of game studios.
In early March,
the union signed a letter asking federal regulators to scrutinize the
acquisition. “The potential takeover by Microsoft threatens to further
undermine workers’ rights and suppress wages,” the letter said.
Microsoft has since tried to strike a conciliatory
tone. It said it would not stop Activision from voluntarily recognizing the
union before a formal election, which Activision did not do. After the Raven QA
workers voted in late May to form the first union at a major North American
game publisher, Phil Spencer, head of gaming at Microsoft, told employees that
he would recognize the Raven union once the deal between the two companies
closed, gaming news site Kotaku reported, citing a video of an employee town
hall.
Activision said it was
starting contract negotiations with the newly unionized Raven workers.
Read more Technology
Jordan News
.jpg)
.jpg)
