Microsoft and the Communications Workers of America union on Monday announced an agreement that would make it easier for workers to unionize with video game maker Activision Blizzard, which is acquiring Microsoft for $70 billion.
Under the deal, which appears to be the first of its kind in the tech industry, Microsoft agreed to remain neutral if any of Activision’s eligible U.S. employees wants to join a union, and employees would no longer petition the National Labor Relations Board for an election. The company has nearly 7,000 employees in the United States, most of whom are eligible to join a union under the scheme.
A group of nearly 30 employees at one of Activision’s studios voted to unionize in 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 over the results.
Under the agreement, employees will have access to an accelerated unionization process, overseen by a neutral third party, in which they will express their support for a union either by signing cards or confidentially via an electronic platform.
“This process gives us and Microsoft a way to do this quote-unquote election without spending the time, effort and controversy associated with an NLRB election,” said Chris Shelton, the president of the Communications Workers Union. , in an interview. †
The union said the neutrality agreement has resolved antitrust issues with the acquisition and is now supporting the deal, which Microsoft says will close by the end of June next year.
Mr. Shelton and Brad Smith, the president of Microsoft, suggested the deal could pave the way for broader unionization within the company and the industry. “This is a great opportunity for us to work with Chris and the CWA and learn and innovate,” said Mr. Smith in an interview. Microsoft said it was willing to build on the deal in the future, but did not specifically comment on whether it plans to extend the terms to other gaming employees at the company.
Microsoft said under the agreement it would refrain from an aggressive anti-union campaign if other Activision employees wanted to join a union. “In practical terms, this means we’re not going to try to jump in and put a thumbs up on the scales,” Mr Smith said in the interview. “We will respect the fact that our employees are able to make decisions for themselves and that they have the right to do so.”
Faced with their own union campaigns, companies like Amazon and Starbucks have regularly held mandatory meetings with employees to argue that a union could make them worse off.
The labor council has filed complaints against Amazon, including allegations of threatening employees with loss of benefits if they join a union, and against Starbucks over allegations that it fired employees who attempted to unionize and effectively promised benefits to employees if they chose not to join a union. Both companies have denied the allegations. In a recent case brought by the NLRB in Arizona, a federal judge dismissed a request for an injunction to reinstate pro-union workers illegally evicted by Starbucks, according to the labor council.
The agreement between Microsoft and the union would also protect workers’ right to communicate with each other and with union officials about a union campaign — something many employers try to discourage — and stipulates that disagreements between the company and the union will be resolved through a “accelerated arbitration procedure.” NLRB complaints can take months or years to resolve.
When Microsoft and Activision announced their blockbuster deal in January, the gamemaker came under pressure over charges that senior executives had ignored sexual harassment and discrimination. Those concerns led to the organization among Activision employees, including employees of the Raven Software studio in Wisconsin, which has developed games in popular franchises such as Call of Duty.
After a group of about 30 quality assurance, or QA, workers announced they wanted to join a union, Activision tried to convince the federal labor council that their election would not go ahead. The game workers accused Activision of union-breaking tactics, such as increasing the wages of non-Raven QA employees and splitting up QA employees by integrating them into the Raven studio.
Activision claimed that while there had been some changes to this spirit after the union campaign went public, the broader shift in approach was already underway — for example, the move to change the status of hundreds of temporary and temporary workers to permanent full-time workers in the autumn.
In early March, the union signed a letter asking federal regulators to investigate the takeover. “The potential acquisition by Microsoft threatens to further undermine workers’ rights and depress wages,” the letter said.
Microsoft has since tried to strike a conciliatory note. It said it wouldn’t stop Activision from voluntarily recognizing the union before a formal election, which Activision has not done. After Raven QA employees voted in late May to form the first union at a major North American game publisher, Phil Spencer, the head of gaming at Microsoft, told employees he would recognize the Raven union once the deal between the two companies had closed, the gaming news site Kotaku reported, citing a city hall video of an employee.
Activision said Friday it was beginning contract negotiations with Raven’s new union members. “We decided to take this important step forward with our 27 employees represented and CWA to explore their ideas and insights on how we can better serve our employees, players and other stakeholders,” said Bobby Kotick, the CEO of the company. company, in a statement.
In a blog post this month that appeared to predict the deal, Mr. Smith announced a set of principles that would guide Microsoft’s response to labor organization, an indication that it was taking a more open approach to all of the company’s operations.
He wrote that he had observed Microsoft’s successful “works council and union collaboration experiences” while working in Europe and said the company in the United States would “pursue collaborative approaches that will make it easier for our employees, rather than more difficult, to make informed decisions.” and exercise their legal right to choose whether to form or join a union.”
In the interview, Mr. Smith called the neutrality agreement “our first opportunity to put those principles into practice.”
The Communications Workers of America, which represents workers at companies like AT&T Mobility, Verizon and The New York Times, has been trying to organize workers in the tech industry in recent years. It has started organizing store workers at Apple Stores and has helped employees at Google form a so-called minority union, allowing them to act together on workplace issues without having to win union elections.
About a dozen employees of Google Fiber stores in Kansas City, Mo., who are formally employed by a Google contractor, recently voted to join the union.
Kellen Browning reporting contributed.
