Activision Blizzard Workers Unite: A Gaming Industry Milestone

As a component of the acquisition agreement with Activision Blizzard, Microsoft had consented to allow the employees of Activision Blizzard to form a union, a move that was earlier confirmed by the Communications Workers of America (CWA) when approximately 600 employees applied to join.

This affiliation of roughly 600 Activision Blizzard employees with the Communications Workers of America has elevated it to the status of the largest union within the United States’ video game industry. The CWA is a collective that includes workers from telecommunications, media, and various other sectors.

Before this development, Microsoft had also consented early last year for around 300 employees from Bethesda and its parent company, Zenimax, to establish a union, making it the largest in the video game industry at the time and facilitating a simplified process for worker unionization.

The decision to allow about 600 Activision Blizzard workers to join the union not only fulfills Microsoft’s commitment at the time of acquisition but also significantly streamlines the unionization process, including signing authorization cards or voting online. Microsoft has also stated it will not interfere with or influence the employees’ desire to join the union.