Workers at Microsoft-owned Activision vote to unionize

The group will become the largest video game company union in the United States, while Microsoft has pledged to remain neutral in the vote .

< p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">About 600 workers at Activision Publishing, the Microsoft-owned video game maker, are unionizing, forming the largest video game workers' union in the United States , the Communications Workers of America announced Friday. Microsoft recognized the union after the vote count was finalized.

Employees work in quality assurance, testing Activision's games for bugs, glitches and other defects, and 390 of them voted to form a union, while eight opposed it, the union said. About 200 workers did not vote.

Microsoft acquired Activision Blizzard, the maker of Call of Duty and other blockbusters, for $69 billion in October. As part of its long effort to convince regulators to approve the deal, Microsoft signed an industry-first pact to remain neutral if workers wanted to unionize with the C.W.A.

Managers were trained not to express an opinion on whether unionization was good or bad, and the C.W.A. said Activision management respected the pact and did not interfere with workers' unionization efforts.

“It has been, from union organizing, a huge blessing,” said Kara Fannon, a union organizing committee member who works for Activision near Minneapolis. “It helped a lot of people who were worried about union busting or potential retaliation.”

The new union is the first at Activision since it took effect. of the pact.

“The choice of Microsoft will strengthen its corporate culture and its ability to serve its customers and should serve as a model for the industry,” said the president of C.W.A. , Claude Cummings Jr., said in a statement.

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