Microsoft Reiterates Commitment To Labor Neutrality Agreement With Communication Workers of America

mmorpg.com:

With the lengthy process of regulatory approval over, Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard King is now a done deal. Following the deal’s closure and first steps, Microsoft Vice Chair & President Brad Smith released a blog reiterating the company's2022 agreement to labor neutrality that the company came to with the Communication Workers of America year. That agreement is set to go into effect 60 days after the acquisition deal closed.

This is significant, since, beginning with Raven Studios, several Activision Blizzard studios labor unions form, represented by the CWA. However, they never got the chance at a contract. This wasn't the only unionization effort, as there have also been unionization steps taken by others in the industry, so with the big nearly $69 billion dollar acquisition finally in the rearview mirror for Microsoft, the labor question is on people's minds. 

The CWA also praised Microsoft for its neutrality stance and the commitment to keeping those promises. The CWA’s press release itself was indicative of the positive feelings they have going into what comes next. The title, “Completion of Microsoft/Activision Merger Will Transform the Video Game and Technology Labor Market”. It's pretty glowing, but they do have those guarantees from Microsoft that the company will remain neutral when employees coming over from Activision Blizzard companies or potentially elsewhere, decide that they want to opt for collective bargaining. 

“Although the neutrality agreement applies to the Activision Blizzard workforce, in December, when workers at Microsoft’s ZeniMax studio announced that they were organizing with CWA, Microsoft acted in accordance with its stated principles and agreed to a similar process. In