A group of
Microsoft Corp.
MSFT -0.10%
employees has voted to form the software company’s first labor union in the U.S., marking the latest example of workers from top tech companies organizing in recent years.
The group comprises about 300 quality-assurance testers in Microsoft’s ZeniMax unit, the Communications Workers of America, which is representing it, said on Tuesday. Just a handful of U.S.-based unions exist in the videogame industry.
“We look forward to engaging in good faith negotiations as we work towards a collective bargaining agreement,” a spokeswoman for Microsoft and ZeniMax said.
In June, Microsoft said it was open to working with any labor unions that want to organize within its workforce, making it an outlier in the tech industry. Last year
Amazon.com Inc.
AMZN 2.17%
contested workers’ efforts to unionize. Microsoft has said it would support workers at
Activision Blizzard Inc.
ATVI 0.43%
who organized last year should its $75 billion deal for the “Call of Duty” developer close.
“Microsoft has lived up to its commitment to its workers and let them decide for themselves whether they want a union,” CWA President
Chris Shelton
said. “Other video game and tech giants have made a conscious choice to attack, undermine, and demoralize their own employees when they join together to form a union.”
Microsoft announced plans to buy Activision a year ago for $75 billion. Last month the Federal Trade Commission sued to block the deal, saying it would harm competition in the videogame industry. The Redmond, Wash.-based company, which values the transaction at $68.7 billion after adjusting for Activision’s net cash, has argued it would do the opposite.
The Activision deal would be Microsoft’s largest ever. It bought ZeniMax, the company behind hit franchises such as “Doom,” “The Elder Scrolls” and “Fallout,” in 2021 for $7.5 billion. Microsoft owns around two dozen studios today and makes Xbox gaming consoles.
Microsoft shares, which are down around 30% over the past 12 months, were little changed after the news on Tuesday.
In addition to Amazon and Activision, other big companies where new groups of workers have recently voted to carry union cards include
Apple Inc.,
Starbucks Corp.
, Trader Joe’s, Recreational Equipment Inc. and
Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc.
For the 12-month period ended Sept. 30, more than 2,500 union representation petitions were filed with the National Labor Relations Board—a 53% increase from the prior year and the most since 2016.
Write to Sarah E. Needleman at [email protected]
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