Activision QA Workers Vote to Unionize

About 600 members of the Activision Quality Assurance (QA) team have voted to unionize, and have joined the Communications Workers of America (CWA). Activision corporate owner Microsoft has already recognized the union, in keeping with its pre-acquisition promises.

“Microsoft continues to keep its commitment to let workers decide for themselves whether they want a union,” CWA president Claude Cummings Jr. said. “Time and again, other big companies in the industry have made the decision to undermine and attack their own employees when they join together to form a union. Microsoft’s choice will strengthen its corporate culture and ability to serve its customers and should serve as a model for the industry.”

Activision Quality Assurance United-CWA, as the new union is called, is now the biggest group of union-represented workers at any U.S. game studio, the CWA says. Most of its members are located in Minnesota, with smaller groups in California and Texas, and they join the approximately 400 other game studio workers at Microsoft—including some from Blizzard, Raven, and ZeniMax—who previously decided to unionize with the CWA.

As you may recall, Microsoft agreed to remain neutral if any of Activision’s U.S.-based employees wanted to unionize as part of the agreements it made before acquiring the firm last year for $68 billion.

“We maintained our commitment to remain neutral during the organizing campaign, and following this vote, we recognize the Communications Workers of America (CWA) as the bargaining representative for the Activision Publishing Central Quality Assurance employees,” Microsoft general counsel, HR Amy Pannoni said. “We look forward to continuing our positive labor-management relationship.”