Microsoft and unions

Microsoft recognized trade unions in the United States since 2022 at its subsidiaries Activision Blizzard and ZeniMax Media. Microsoft South Korea recognizes its union since 2017 and German employees have elected Works Councils since 1998.

Microsoft workers have been active in opposing military/law-enforcement contracts with their employer.

Germany[edit]

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.[1]

United States[edit]

Microsoft recognized its first trade unions in January 2023 when 300 QA testers, a majority at ZeniMax Studios voted to unionize as ZeniMax Workers United/CWA. This follows the unionization efforts of QA testers at Activision Blizzard which was acquired by Microsoft in 2022.[2]

Earlier in June 2022 Microsoft announced a labor neutrality agreement with the Communications Workers of America (CWA). Microsoft agreed it will not interfere with nor oppose unionization efforts.[3]

Activision Blizzard[edit]

Main article: Activision Blizzard worker organization

The labor neutrality agreement also applied to Activision Blizzard,[3] as of December 2023; 60 days after Microsoft's acquisition of it.[4]

In May 2022, QA testers of Activision Blizzard subsidiary Raven Software went public as the Game Workers Alliance (GWA) and voted to unionize with a count of 19 – 2 in favor. The National Labor Relations Board recognized GWA as a union.[5][6]

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.[7] The vote passed (14–0), forming the second union at an Activision Blizzard subsidiary.[8]

Military contract[edit]

In February 2019, hundreds of Microsoft employees protested the company's war profiteering from a $480 million contract to develop virtual reality headsets for the United States Army.[9]

ICE contract[edit]

100s of Microsoft employees protested their employers government contracts with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).[10]

GitHub (subsidiary of Microsoft) has 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."[11] 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.[12][13][14]

The ICE contract dispute came into focus again in June 2020 due to the company's decision to abandon "master/slave" branch terminology, spurred by the George Floyd protests and Black Lives Matter movement.[15] Detractors of GitHub describe the branch renaming to be a form of performative activism and have urged GitHub to cancel their ICE contract instead.[16] An open letter from members of the open source community was shared on GitHub in December 2019, demanding that the company drop its contract with ICE and provide more transparency into how they conduct business and partnerships. The letter has been signed by more than 700 people.[17]

South Korea[edit]

In the Summer of 2017,[18] 370 workers (half of the total workforce) of Microsoft Korea (South Korea) formed The Microsoft Korea Worker's Union.[19] It is led by Lee Ok-Hyoung, and affiliated to the Korea Confederation of Trade Union.[20][note 1]

On 24 November 2021, 90% of the union membership voted to go on strike over long working hours and a 3.5% pay increase that was rejected by the union membership.[19]

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ ETNews claims MS Korea union formed in July 2017, while The Investor states it was formed in August 2017.

References[edit]

  1. ^ Richter, Isabel (2014-09-01). "Microsoft Deutschland führt "Vertrauensarbeitsort" ein" [Microsoft Germany introduces "trusted workplace]. Microsoft Germany (in German). Retrieved 2023-09-22.
  2. ^ Conditt, Jessica (2023-01-03). "Microsoft is now the home of the video game industry's largest union". Engadget. Retrieved 2024-06-12.
  3. ^ a b "Microsoft, union enter into labor neutrality agreement". Reuters. 2022-06-13. Retrieved 2022-06-26.
  4. ^ Holt, Kris (2023-10-13). "Microsoft officially owns Activision Blizzard, ending a 21-month battle with regulators". Engadget. Retrieved 2024-06-12.
  5. ^ Wood, Austin (May 23, 2022). "Activision Blizzard employees form first major NA games union, hope to inspire "growing movement of workers"". GamesRadar+. Archived from the original on June 14, 2022. Retrieved 14 June 2022.
  6. ^ Paul, Kari (May 23, 2022). "Activision Blizzard's Raven Software workers vote to form industry's first union". The Guardian. Archived from the original on June 14, 2022. Retrieved 14 June 2022.
  7. ^ "Blizzard QA workers in Albany are organizing Activision's second union". July 19, 2022. Archived from the original on August 1, 2022. Retrieved August 1, 2022.
  8. ^ Carpenter, Nicole (December 2, 2022). "Blizzard Albany becomes second unionized studio at Activision Blizzard". Polygon. Archived from the original on January 26, 2023. Retrieved February 11, 2023.
  9. ^ Wong, Julia Carrie (February 22, 2019). "'We won't be war profiteers': Microsoft workers protest $480m army contract". The Guardian. Archived from the original on February 23, 2019. Retrieved February 23, 2019.
  10. ^ Birnbaum, Emily (2020-06-10). "Microsoft employees are pushing for change. Will it matter?". Protocol (news). Retrieved 2022-06-26.
  11. ^ "GitHub and US Government developers". The GitHub Blog. GitHub. 9 October 2019. Archived from the original on March 22, 2021. Retrieved October 10, 2019.
  12. ^ "As GitHub's Conference Begins, Five Employees Resign Over ICE Contract". Vice. 13 November 2019. Archived from the original on March 22, 2021. Retrieved November 15, 2019.
  13. ^ Ghaffary, Shirin (9 October 2019). "GitHub is the latest tech company to face controversy over its contracts with ICE". Vox. Archived from the original on March 22, 2021. Retrieved November 15, 2019.
  14. ^ "Letter from GitHub employees to CEO about the company's ICE contract". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on March 22, 2021. Retrieved November 15, 2019.
  15. ^ "Microsoft's GitHub drops master-slave jargon". BBC News. 2020-06-15. Archived from the original on March 22, 2021. Retrieved 2020-07-01.
  16. ^ "After GitHub CEO backs Black Lives Matter, workers demand an end to ICE contract". Los Angeles Times. 2020-06-13. Archived from the original on March 22, 2021. Retrieved 2020-07-01.
  17. ^ "The Open Source Community Is Calling on Github to 'Drop ICE'". www.vice.com. 20 July 2020. Archived from the original on March 22, 2021. Retrieved 2020-10-19.
  18. ^ Park, Ga-young (10 July 2018). "Oracle Korea's reputation on the line with record-long strike". The Investor. Retrieved 2022-06-26.
  19. ^ a b "Microsoft Korea Workers' Union votes to strike over wages and disregard for workers' sacrifice during pandemic". UNI Global Union. Retrieved 2022-06-26.
  20. ^ Kim, Jiseon (2017-10-17). "South Korea Oracle Establishes Its First Labor Union". ETNEWS. Retrieved 2022-06-26.

External links[edit]

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