... That is.... a very surprising and refreshing stance for any corporation, much less one of Microsoft's size and age.
Rather than campaigning against unionization on its gaming teams, Microsoft continued its recent practice of staying neutral and agreeing to voluntarily recognize and negotiate with the group if it secured majority support, according to the CWA.
...
In 2022, while seeking government approval to purchase Activision, Microsoft announced a new set of principles, committing to “collaborative approaches that will make it simpler” for workers to choose whether to unionize. The company inked a deal with the CWA on more specific terms to ease unionization of certain jobs, and last year announced it would take a similar approach to organizing efforts by other AFL-CIO unions.
That is.... a very surprising and refreshing stance for any corporation, much less one of Microsoft's size and age.
I'm so surprised, that I don't trust it. Embrace Extend Extinguish is their foundational business model after all. I'll be quite pleased if I'm wrong. It seems more Microsoft to accept the union,...
I'm so surprised, that I don't trust it. Embrace Extend Extinguish is their foundational business model after all. I'll be quite pleased if I'm wrong.
It seems more Microsoft to accept the union, then bribe the leaders to turn it into a vestigial bit that is used to further propagandize about how ineffective and evil unions are.
Or just ignore it 5 years later once the media has forgotten.
As someone who works in an industry that is highly unionized and has a history of union busting, I think this is a big part of it. The NLRB is a highly political oversight board, the current...
As someone who works in an industry that is highly unionized and has a history of union busting, I think this is a big part of it.
The NLRB is a highly political oversight board, the current administration has taken a very pro-union stance and it is very easy for a manager to say something off the cuff that tanks any union avoidance strategy the business might have.
Microsoft likely saw the value in having a good relationship with the union rather than risking an adversarial relationship. I work closely with our head of labor relations, I've observed contract negotiations (I was asked to consider being a labor negotiator), and many of the guys who took me under their wing were negotiators. The relationship between the local union, union rep, and the business's labor management team is very personal and impacts how painful or easy negotiations more than any other factor.
FWIW: I declined the job because it isn't the type of thing I want to do, the travel requirements were way too high. While I think someone of my political disposition could do well, I'm a bit too "viva la revolution" to play the role.
That is a wild headline to read as a long-time former WoW player. Microsoft's World of Warcraft. Like obviously I've kept up with the news, but it feels weird. Like when Sonic games first showed...
That is a wild headline to read as a long-time former WoW player. Microsoft's World of Warcraft. Like obviously I've kept up with the news, but it feels weird. Like when Sonic games first showed up on Nintendo consoles...
But anyway, very happy for the WoW staff. And I hope this and Bethesda's unionization efforts kick off a snowball effect in the game dev industry, and (if I'm very lucky) the broader developer industry as a whole!
For a subindustry so famously subject to crunch and general mistreatment, it's so surprising to me that unions have come so late into the game. I always loved games and basically learned how to...
For a subindustry so famously subject to crunch and general mistreatment, it's so surprising to me that unions have come so late into the game. I always loved games and basically learned how to program so I could develop games, but ended up not even trying to get into the industry because of all the horror stories.
White-collar workers labored under the assumption that they had significantly more individual power than they actually did. When you feel like you have as much power as your employer, a union...
White-collar workers labored under the assumption that they had significantly more individual power than they actually did. When you feel like you have as much power as your employer, a union doesn't seem so needed. But the last few years have made it clear that programmers are just as much of a cog in someone else's machine despite working at a computer instead of some other piece of company-owned machinery.
There has been an increasing push for unionization in recent years at least. I'm kind of surprised it didn't happen a little sooner, because I remember the calls seemed to be picking up momentum...
There has been an increasing push for unionization in recent years at least. I'm kind of surprised it didn't happen a little sooner, because I remember the calls seemed to be picking up momentum around the time I attended GDC in 2019. That would have been in the wake of the Telltale closure in 2018 leading to all the sudden mass layoffs, which I think had added some extra momentum. I read some real horror stories about the industry while browsing the Telltale tags on Twitter.
I kind of wonder if Covid may have put a pause on the unionization efforts just like everything else. I doubt the movement would have come to fruition in 2020, but with how bad the game dev industry is outside a pandemic, the efforts would have garnered more support just from people getting continually burnt. Instead, everyone just went into survival mode and we still aren't fully out of the woods yet.
Between Crowdstrike, the FTC calling out Microsoft's price hikes for GamePass, and now multiple unions forming, seems like some higher up at Microsoft isn't having the best time
...
That is.... a very surprising and refreshing stance for any corporation, much less one of Microsoft's size and age.
I'm so surprised, that I don't trust it. Embrace Extend Extinguish is their foundational business model after all. I'll be quite pleased if I'm wrong.
It seems more Microsoft to accept the union, then bribe the leaders to turn it into a vestigial bit that is used to further propagandize about how ineffective and evil unions are.
Or just ignore it 5 years later once the media has forgotten.
I just assumed that they had the labor board watching their asses so closely. They didn't want to risk anything.
As someone who works in an industry that is highly unionized and has a history of union busting, I think this is a big part of it.
The NLRB is a highly political oversight board, the current administration has taken a very pro-union stance and it is very easy for a manager to say something off the cuff that tanks any union avoidance strategy the business might have.
Microsoft likely saw the value in having a good relationship with the union rather than risking an adversarial relationship. I work closely with our head of labor relations, I've observed contract negotiations (I was asked to consider being a labor negotiator), and many of the guys who took me under their wing were negotiators. The relationship between the local union, union rep, and the business's labor management team is very personal and impacts how painful or easy negotiations more than any other factor.
FWIW: I declined the job because it isn't the type of thing I want to do, the travel requirements were way too high. While I think someone of my political disposition could do well, I'm a bit too "viva la revolution" to play the role.
Yes, what you said! I was only half coherent and entirely un-caffeinated. And you know more. But yes. That.
Also praise the NLRB
Indeed
That is a wild headline to read as a long-time former WoW player. Microsoft's World of Warcraft. Like obviously I've kept up with the news, but it feels weird. Like when Sonic games first showed up on Nintendo consoles...
But anyway, very happy for the WoW staff. And I hope this and Bethesda's unionization efforts kick off a snowball effect in the game dev industry, and (if I'm very lucky) the broader developer industry as a whole!
For a subindustry so famously subject to crunch and general mistreatment, it's so surprising to me that unions have come so late into the game. I always loved games and basically learned how to program so I could develop games, but ended up not even trying to get into the industry because of all the horror stories.
White-collar workers labored under the assumption that they had significantly more individual power than they actually did. When you feel like you have as much power as your employer, a union doesn't seem so needed. But the last few years have made it clear that programmers are just as much of a cog in someone else's machine despite working at a computer instead of some other piece of company-owned machinery.
There has been an increasing push for unionization in recent years at least. I'm kind of surprised it didn't happen a little sooner, because I remember the calls seemed to be picking up momentum around the time I attended GDC in 2019. That would have been in the wake of the Telltale closure in 2018 leading to all the sudden mass layoffs, which I think had added some extra momentum. I read some real horror stories about the industry while browsing the Telltale tags on Twitter.
I kind of wonder if Covid may have put a pause on the unionization efforts just like everything else. I doubt the movement would have come to fruition in 2020, but with how bad the game dev industry is outside a pandemic, the efforts would have garnered more support just from people getting continually burnt. Instead, everyone just went into survival mode and we still aren't fully out of the woods yet.
Between Crowdstrike, the FTC calling out Microsoft's price hikes for GamePass, and now multiple unions forming, seems like some higher up at Microsoft isn't having the best time
Mirror: https://archive.is/pi67F
ty for your hard work :)
YVW! :)