Microsoft and unions

Microsoft recognizes 5 trade unions in the United States at its video game subsidiaries Activision Blizzard and ZeniMax Media since 2022. There is an ongoing petition at Bethesda Game Studios in Canada. Microsoft South Korea recognizes its union since 2017. German employees have elected Works Councils since 1998.

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

Canada
Montreal employees of Bethesda Game Studios filed to unionize on June 26, 2024 with the Quebec Labour Board. If successfully, they would affiliate with Communications Workers of America which represents workers in both the US and Canada. This follows the recent unionization of QA testers at ZeniMax, its parent company in the United States.

Germany
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.

United States
Microsoft recognizes 5 different video game unions and has a labor neutrality agreement that extends to all Microsoft workers, including its subsidiaries Activision Blizzard and ZeniMax Media as of 2024. When Microsoft acquired Activision Blizzard it inherited two video game unions from subsidiaries Raven Software and Blizzard Albany. Microsoft recognizes two additional unions at ZeniMax Studios and Activision. In two previous union drives at contractor Lionbridge in 2016 and 2024, the unions allege that Lionbridge fired workers in retaliation.

Historic union drives
A small group of 18 agency contractors at TaxSaver software declared itself a "negotiating unit" in April 1999 and became union-dues paying members of Washington Alliance of Technology Workers. Current joint employment law required their bargaining unit to be recognized by both Microsoft and TaxSaver, their employment agency, which neither did. Despite not formally engaging in collective bargaining, the TaxSaver unit saw wage increases. One year later Microsoft partnered with H&R Block, resulting in loss of jobs for the TaxSaver unit.

38 software testers agency contractors in 2014 at Lionbridge formed the trade union "Temporary Workers Alliance". A year later, Microsoft required Lionbridge to provide at least 3 weeks of vacation. In 2016, Lionbridge announced layoffs, two months after the union had ratified their first collective agreement. As part of the negotiations, the trade union had agreed to drop a joint employer case between the union and Lionbridge/Microsoft.

Activision Blizzard
The labor neutrality agreement went into effect at Activision Blizzard, as of December 2023; 60 days after Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

In May 2022, Quality Assurance (QA) testers of Activision Blizzard subsidiary Raven Software went public as the Game Workers Alliance (GWA) with the support of Campaign to Organize Digital Employees-CWA and voted to unionize (19–2) in favor. The National Labor Relations Board recognized GWA as a union.

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

On March 8, 2024, 600 QA testers at 3 Activision studios in Austin, Texas, Eden Prairie, Minnesota and El Segundo, California formed the union "Activision Quality Assurance United-CWA" and voted to unionize (390–8) in favor, making it the largest video game union in the United States. Microsoft voluntarily recognized the union.

In June 2024, an unfair labor practice was filed against the Lionbridge by CWA alleging that the company illegally terminated the employment of 160 Activision software testers in Boise, Idaho, in retaliation for exercising their right to participate in concerted union activities. As part of the layoff, CWA also alleges that workers were required to sign an overly broad confidentiality agreement and an illegal waiver of certain rights protected by the National Labor Relations Act.

ZeniMax
Microsoft recognized 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. 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.

Microsoft recognized 241 employees of Bethesda Game Studios on 20 July 2024. This is the first “wall to wall” union representation and calls itself “OneBGS”. The bargaining unit will represent all of its employees across three studios in the United States, including artists, developers, and engineers; unlike its parent company ZeniMax, which so far exclusively represent QA testers.

Military contract
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.

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

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." 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.

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. Detractors of GitHub describe the branch renaming to be a form of performative activism and have urged GitHub to cancel their ICE contract instead. 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.

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

On November 24, 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.