Microsoft Will Respect Unionization Efforts from its Employees

Microsoft President Brad Smith said yesterday that the software giant will respect the efforts from its employees who want to unionize. The announcement comes right after a group of employees at Activision Blizzard, a major video game publisher which is being acquired by Microsoft voted to form a union.

In his blog post on the matter, Smith said that Microsoft wants to have a forward-thinking approach regarding unionization efforts. “Recent unionization campaigns across the country — including in the tech sector — have led us to conclude that inevitably these issues will touch on more businesses, potentially including our own,” the exec said yesterday.

Windows Intelligence In Your Inbox

Sign up for our new free newsletter to get three time-saving tips each Friday — and get free copies of Paul Thurrott's Windows 11 and Windows 10 Field Guides (normally $9.99) as a special welcome gift!

"*" indicates required fields

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Smith shared a series of four principles that will guide Microsoft’s approach regarding unionization efforts, which you can read below:

  • We believe in the importance of listening to our employees’ concerns.
  • We recognize that employees have a legal right to choose whether to form or join a union.
  • We are committed to creative and collaborative approaches with unions when employees wish to exercise their rights and Microsoft is presented with a specific unionization proposal.
  • Building on our global labor experiences, we are dedicated to maintaining a close relationship and shared partnership with all our employees, including those represented by a union.

“We believe Microsoft’s stakeholders will be served best with an open and constructive approach based on the following four principles,” Smith said yesterday. However, the exec also emphasized that “our employees will never need to organize to have a dialogue with Microsoft’s leaders.”

Tagged with

Share post

Please check our Community Guidelines before commenting

Conversation 7 comments

  • fishnet37222

    Premium Member
    03 June, 2022 - 10:39 am

    <p>I just hope that employees who do not want to be in a union aren’t forced to join one or forced to have dues deducted from their paychecks. Joining a union should never be a condition of employment.</p>

    • anoldamigauser

      Premium Member
      03 June, 2022 - 11:30 am

      <p>If you work in a union shop, then, typically, you will be working under the union contract which will determine salary and benefits. In that case, it makes no sense to not join the union, as it gives you some voice in the organization. I say this as someone who has worked in a union shop, which as a design professional was a bit odd; but overtime pay is a nice perk if you are expected to put in 50-60 hour weeks, or come in over a weekend.</p><p><br></p><p>I would also point out that unions are no more or less evil than corporations. They are just concerned with their own interests, and, like corporations, are often their own worst enemy. That said, the decline in union participation has coincided with the lack of real wage growth for the last 40 years, and while correlation is not causation…wages in the service economy are, perhaps, more barbell shaped than in manufacturing…it might be a contributing factor.</p>

      • red.radar

        Premium Member
        04 June, 2022 - 8:58 am

        <p>But will it meaningfully work? Software jobs can be done anywhere in the world. You compete with a global talent pool. Today’s leadership may be willing to give it whirl but tomorrows leadership in a tight economy will shut down the operation and outsource ever so quickly. You don’t have the sunk costs of a factory or major capital investment to keep leadership from pulling the rug out. Which maybe why they are willing to give it a whirl?</p><p><br></p><p>I just don’t see how unions work in a global economy….</p>

        • Username

          04 June, 2022 - 6:13 pm

          <p>When it comes to pay increase or improving conditions, every economy is a “tight economy”. That don’t prevent executives giving themselves same.</p>

      • Greg Green

        08 June, 2022 - 11:07 am

        <p>I think the stagnating wages in the US have more to do with the loss of factories due to globalization, off shoring and out sourcing. In the US wages started stagnating around the turn of the century.</p>

  • wshwe

    03 June, 2022 - 2:58 pm

    <p>Microsoft is already much better than Apple, Amazon, Google and Tesla.</p>

  • vladimir

    Premium Member
    06 June, 2022 - 5:54 pm

    <p>I thought this should have been taken for granted. In which third world countries corporations DON’T respect employees who want to unionize?</p>

Windows Intelligence In Your Inbox

Sign up for our new free newsletter to get three time-saving tips each Friday

"*" indicates required fields

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Thurrott © 2024 Thurrott LLC