Microsoft and unions

Microsoft recognizes 11 video game unions in the United States, representing 3,000 video game workers. Microsoft like other tech companies, has historically resisted unions and relied on temporary workers with lower pay and job security than regular employees. This shift began in 2015 and accelerated in 2022 when Microsoft acquired Activision Blizzard. To expedite the approval process, Microsoft signed a labor neutrality agreement with Communications Workers of America. This agreement guarantees that Microsoft will not interfere with or oppose union organizing efforts. It applies to both of its video game subsidiaries, Activision Blizzard and ZeniMax Media. Other unionization efforts at TaxSaver Software and Lionbridge have been unsuccessful.

Microsoft employees in the United States have been vocal in their opposition to military and ICE government contracts with Microsoft. Microsoft workers also showed transnational support for Chinese tech worker protesting the 996.icu overtime culture.

Around the world, Microsoft and its subsidiaries have formed unions in Canada, Poland, Romania, South Korea and Sweden and formed works councils in Germany. Bethesda Game Studios employees unionized in Canada, and King video game developers in Sweden voted to form a "union club".

Australia

Microsoft and the Australian Council of Trade Unions signed a voluntary framework agreement, codifying worker participation regarding the design and usage of artificial intelligence in the workplace. This partnership builds on previous memorandum of understandings regarding workplace protections and right to unionize, signed between Microsoft and Australian Services Union, Professionals Australia and the Shop Distributive and Allied Employees Association.[1]

Canada

Montreal studio of Bethesda Game Studios was certified on August 13, 2024, with support of Communications Workers of America Canada.[2] This follows the recent unionization of QA testers at ZeniMax, its parent company in the United States.[3]

Germany

Microsoft Germany has 2,700 employees and 6 offices across Germany as of 2014. Employees are represented by local works councils and a central works council since 1998.[4]

Romania

Microsoft Romania employees formed a union in early 2024. Almost a year later, in January 2025, Microsoft Romania signed a collective agreement with SLTC, a trade union affiliate of ANTIC. The collective agreement covers 1,500 workers.[5]

United States

Microsoft recognizes 11 video game unions representing 3,000 video game workers.[6] Microsoft like other tech companies, has historically resisted unions and relied on temporary workers with lower pay and job security than regular employees. Microsoft changed course in 2014 with the appointment of Brad Smith, Microsoft's new general counsel. Smith, along with the new CEO Satya Nadella, took a more conciliatory approach to regulation, including labor rights. This took shape in 2015, when Microsoft instructed all large contractors to provide paid time off.[7]

When Microsoft announced its intention to acquire Activision Blizzard in a $70 billion deal in January 2022, there was a pragmatic risk that Communications Workers of America (CWA) would oppose the acquisition if Microsoft did not recognize ongoing unionization efforts at Activision. The FTC raised antitrust concerns about the deal, so Microsoft hoped a labor neutrality agreement with CWA would make the pro-labor Biden administration less likely to oppose the acquisition.

Poland

Microsoft Workers Union was registered on August 10, 2023, and is led by Tomasz Dydo.[45] As of 2024, an estimated 130 members have joined, representing a Microsoft's Polish workforce. Some of the issues the union wants to address are crunch time, unused vacation days and better enforcement of local labor laws.[46]

South Korea

In the Summer of 2017,[47] 370 workers of Microsoft Korea (half of the total workforce) formed Microsoft Korea Labor Union .[48] It is led by Lee Ok-Hyoung, and is affiliated to the Korea Confederation of Trade Union.[50] The union signed its first collective agreement in 2018, negotiation wages annually since.[51]

On November 24, 2021, 90% of the union membership voted to go on strike over long working hours and a 3.5% pay-raise offer that was rejected by the union membership,[48] instead demanding a 6.5% pay-raise. The strike authorization passed after 37 rounds of negotiations.[52]

Sweden

King is a video-game subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, headquartered in Stockholm. King is best known for publishing Candy Crush. In October 2024, Stockholm employees voted to form a "union club" with Unionen, a Swedish trade union. As of January 2025, they have 217 members and meet with management to negotiate for a collective agreement. The impetus for increased membership was due to the cancellation of a private company doctor.[53]

External links

Database of Microsoft collective actions

References

David Swan. Unions score rare win over AI rollout with Microsoft agreement The Sydney Morning Herald, 2026-01-14, retrieved 2026-01-29^
Bethesda Game Studios Workers Win Labour Board Certification, Officially Join CWA Canada CWA Canada, 2024-08-16, retrieved 2024-08-19^
Sophie McEvoy. Bethesda Montreal files for unionisation

Historic union drives

A small group of 18 agency contractors at TaxSaver software declared itself the "negotiating unit" in April 1999 and became union-dues paying members of Washington Alliance of Technology Workers, affiliated to CWA.

Under joint employment law, their bargaining unit would have to be recognized by both Microsoft and TaxSaver which neither did. Despite the formal lack of collective bargaining, the TaxSaver unit experienced wage increases. A year later, Microsoft switched to H&R Block, resulting in a loss of jobs for the TaxSaver unit.[8]

38 software testers who were contracted by Lionbridge formed the union "Temporary Workers Alliance" union in 2014. Microsoft explicitly did not bargain with them, but they instructed Lionbridge to provide at least 3 weeks of vacation for all contractors.[9] In 2016, Lionbridge announced layoffs, two months after the union ratified its first collective agreement. As part of the negotiations, the union had agreed to drop a joint employer lawsuit between them, Lionbridge and Microsoft.[10]

Activision Blizzard

In May 2022, Quality Assurance (QA) testers of Activision Blizzard subsidiary Raven Software went public as "Game Workers Alliance" (GWA) with the support of Campaign to Organize Digital Employees-CWA.[11] GWA voted to unionize (19–2), which the National Labor Relations Board certified afterwards.[12][13]

Following the Raven QA team's successful unionization, the 20-member QA team of Blizzard Albany announced a unionization drive in July 2022 as GWA Albany.[14] The vote passed (14–0), forming the second union at an Activision Blizzard subsidiary.[15]

ZeniMax

300 QA testers at ZeniMax Online Studios voted to unionize as "ZeniMax Workers United-CWA" in January 2023. The QA testers review video games like Elder Scrolls Online. Among the issues they wish to improve are equitable pay, workplace communication and ending crunch time.[25] ZeniMax QA testers at the Texas and Maryland studios initiated a one-day strike on November 13, 2024, in response to the shift from remote-work to return-to-office policy and Microsoft's reliance on outsourcing.[26] In May 2025, following two years of negotiations, the ZeniMax QA testers union reached a contract agreement with Microsoft, guaranteeing wage and salary minimums, protections against arbitrary dismissal, grievance procedures, and a crediting policy for QA workers.[27] 461 other employees also involved with Elder Scrolls Online, including designers, engineers, graphics artists and developers also at ZeniMax Online Studios, unionized as "ZOS United-CWA" in December.[28]

ICE contract

100s of Microsoft employees protested their employers government contracts with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in June 2018.[34]

GitHub (subsidiary of Microsoft) had a $200,000 contract with ICE for the use of their on-site product GitHub Enterprise Server. This contract was renewed in 2019, despite internal opposition from many GitHub employees. In an email sent to employees, later posted to the GitHub blog on October 9, 2019, CEO Nat Friedman stated "The revenue from the purchase is less than $200,000 and not financially material for our company." He announced that GitHub had pledged to donate $500,000 to "nonprofit groups supporting immigrant communities targeted by the current administration."[35] In response, at least 150 GitHub employees signed an open letter re-stating their opposition to the contract, and denouncing alleged human rights abuses by ICE. As of November 13, 2019, five workers had resigned over the contract.[36][37][38]

996.ICU

On March 26, 2019, Chinese tech workers launched a public GitHub (owned by Microsoft) repository "996.ICU" protesting Chinese companies that have 996 working hour culture. "996.ICU" references 9am to 9pm, 6 days a week, ending up in the intensive care unit. In less than a week, over 200,000 users "starred" or liked the repository.[42] This repository has been described as the largest display of solidarity among tech workers.[43] A month later, Microsoft employees launched another GitHub repository in support of 996.ICU, which they said was threatened by censorship in China and asked Microsoft not to censor the original repository.[44]