A few years ago, the Communication Workers of America (CWA) union worked hard to organize tech workers of all stripes, including gaming studios, through its CODE-CWA (Coalition to Organize Digital Employees) initiative. As part of this effort, Vodeo Games, maker of Beast Breaker, became the first unionized games studio in North America before the studio closed due to flagging sales before 2022 ended.
By then, the emboldened CWA had already moved onto Microsoft, where video game testers at subsidiary ZeniMax Studios, makers of The Elder Scrolls, voted to join CWA.
Around that time, Microsoft adopted a labor neutrality agreement, including a commitment not to oppose the organizing process. After the long-gestating acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Microsoft also inherited CWA-unionized workforces at Call of Duty: Warzone QA maker Raven Software and Diablo franchise maker Blizzard Albany. The union, of course, could not protect these workers from early 2024 layoffs, and in 2023, CWA withdrew its petition for a vote at Microsoft developer Proletariat after worker interest crumbled.
CWA didn’t curtail its efforts, however, and we may have hit a tipping point. Microsoft’s labor neutrality agreement has helped the union gain a foothold within more subsidiaries at the company.
As of late July 2024, The newest CWA victory at Microsoft included 500 World of Warcraft workers, including quality assurance testers, developers, and engineers. The subsidiary in question, Blizzard Entertainment, has voluntarily recognized this “first wall-to-wall union,” which qualifies as the largest of its kind at Microsoft.
To date, CWA claims to have unionized 1,750 video game workers throughout Microsoft. That isn’t a massive number after years of organizing, but the trend cannot be ignored. Likewise, Microsoft’s reasons for choosing a union-neutral stance remain nebulous and are a possible sign of things to come in tech. A CWA campaign leader has also vowed to continue ramping up efforts to unionize other gaming shops, both large and small, throughout the gaming industry.
Of course, the upheaval within this industry isn’t limited to the CWA zeroing in on gaming workers. This month, video game performers represented by SAG-AFTRA began to strike against Activision, Disney, WB Games, and Electronic Arts. In doing so, these workers will not be performing stunts, motion-capture work, or voice acting for video games until the companies agree to “meaningful AI protections.” As we saw after last year’s conclusion of the WGA strike, it’s clear that no side has a grasp on whether AI will threaten jobs, meaning that unions have no idea what they are doing while seeking those protections.
In early 2024, Microsoft re-upped its neutrality stance, but it’s worth watching how these unionized tech workers feel in a few years. After all, unions frequently make promises they cannot keep, and there’s no reason to believe that the subject of AI (which also concerns quality assurance testers in this industry) will be any different in the long term. Companies considering a neutrality agreement can gain insights from the tech industry experience.
