Microsoft Says It Will Work With Unions, With Eye On Activision!
Microsoft Corp. said it will work with labor groups when workers want to join them, taking a precautionary stance amid a wave of union organizing in the tech industry and ahead of its acquisition of Activision Blizzard Inc.
In a blog post outlining the company’s principles for engaging with employees, Microsoft president, and vice president Brad Smith wrote that workers “will never need to organize to have a dialogue with Microsoft leaders,” but that The software giant acknowledges that some employees in some countries may choose to join a labor organization.
Microsoft Corp. said working with working groups when workers want to join them, taking a precautionary stance amid a wave of union organizing in the technology industry and before the acquisition of Activision Blizzard Inc., home of the former labor industry labor union.
In a blog post outlining the company’s principles on engaging with employees, Microsoft President and Vice President Brad Smith wrote that workers “will never need to organize to have a dialogue with Microsoft executives,” but that the giant of the software recognizes that some employees in certain countries may choose to join a work organization.
“We respect this right and do not believe that our employees or other employees of the company benefit from resisting the legal efforts of employees to participate in protected activities, including the formation or union of a union,” Smith said. he wrote Thursday. “We are engaged in creative and collaborative approaches with unions when employees want to exercise their rights and Microsoft is presented with a specific unionization proposal.”
The company based in Redmond, Wash. seeks regulatory approval for its $ 69 billion purchase of Activision Blizzard, which was announced in January.
In a blog post outlining the company’s principles for engaging with employees, Microsoft president and vice president Brad Smith wrote that workers “will never need to organize to have a dialogue with Microsoft leaders,” but that The software giant acknowledges that some employees in some countries may choose to join a labor organization.
In a blog post outlining the company’s principles for engaging with employees, Microsoft president and vice president Brad Smith wrote that workers “will never need to organize to have a dialogue with Microsoft leaders,” but that The software giant acknowledges that some employees in some countries may choose to join a labor organization.
Video game testers at Activision Blizzard’s Raven Software subsidiary voted last month to form a union with Communications Workers of America, a first for a U.S.-listed gaming company. Nineteen quality assurance testers at Raven Software, who are evaluating the performance of the games in the lucrative “Call of Duty” series, voted for the legal recognition of the union they had organized in January. Three voted against.
Microsoft’s statement comes in the wake of a growing work organization in the United States, including in industries and companies where such efforts have traditionally struggled or failed.
Among recent actions in other Seattle area companies, workers at more than 60 Starbucks Corp. sites. in 17 states they voted to join Workers United, an affiliate of the International Service Employees Union, following the guidance of bartenders in Buffalo, NY Staffers approx. 175 more Starbucks have asked the federal government for their votes. And Amazon.com Inc. employees in a New York warehouse voted to join an upstart labor union, ending more than 25 years in which the company has managed to keep unions out.
Smith said Microsoft acknowledges that the workplace has changed. “While relations with the work organization are not new to Microsoft, we know we have a lot to learn,” he wrote.
