Microsoft and the Communications Workers of America (CWA) have reached a neutrality agreement that promises to ease the path to unionization for staff at Activision Blizzard, the game studio Microsoft plans to acquire for $68.7 billion.
Quality assurance staff at Activision Blizzard subsidiary Raven Software voted to unionize last month, the culmination of months of action — including a five-week strike in January over Activision’s decision to lay off 12 QA testers — that resulted in the first union at a major US video game publisher. Despite initially refusing to voluntarily recognize the CWA-backed union, Activision Blizzard’s CEO Bobby Kotick reportedly changed tack in an email to staff last week.
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