Last week, the workers at Raven Software voted to unionize, with a majority vote approving the right. Today, Xbox head Phil Spencer said he and his team will recognize the union after Microsoft acquires Activision Blizzard.
Kotaku was able to verify the quote below taken from a video in an all-hands meeting at Xbox earlier today.
“We absolutely support employees’ right to organize and form unions,” Spencer said. “Once the deal closes, we would absolutely support [an] employees’ organization that’s in place.”
“We think it is a right of employees and something that can be a part of a relationship between a company and people who work at the company.”
This comes as a big win for Raven and Xbox as almost two years ago Spencer had said in another all-hands meeting he wasn’t too familiar with unions. This comes from a talk with The Washington Post’s Gene Park.
Microsoft acquiring Activision Blizzard for $69 billion is still in the works with the deal facing scrutiny from the Federal Trade Commission.
Speaking to Axios, Microsoft had said that it “will not object” to Activision Blizzard recognizing Raven Software’s union. The company had failed to recognize the union in January by the deadline and it seems like the company will not voluntarily recognize the union without ensuring several conditions are met.
The fact Raven Software was able to unionize is a massive win for the games industry and in the face of the pin cushion executive doing everything to prevent the union, the QA team persevered.
