3 years later... they won
Call of Duty Workers Win 3-Year Battle For Microsoft Union Contract
After almost three years of negotiations, 19 quality assurance testers at Call of Duty development studio, Raven Software, have ratified their first union contract with Microsoft. In 2021, Raven workers began unionizing following the layoffs of over a dozen testers. (At the time, I broke the story for The Washington Post.) Those layoffs, plus other cultural issues being raised at Activision Blizzard, coupled with an increase in video game unions, led by testers who had long felt expendable and reportedly mistreated.
“It feels like we’ve been sprinting a marathon, and so to finally be at the end of it is kind of unbelievable,” says Erin Hall, quality assurance tester and Raven bargaining member.
The contract guarantees a 10 percent wage increase over two years, and grants most of the Wisconsin-based workers permission to permanently work from home. It also addresses the issue of crunch, by requiring employers to give seven days’ notice for any mandatory overtime, and abolishing many instances of mandatory overtime. Job descriptions will also become defined and the promotions process spelled out, which was another long-time ask from workers.
“How do you progress within QA? How do you get promoted? How do you get a raise?” says Autumn Prazuch, who is also a bargaining member and tester. “For so long we haven’t had those [answers], to be able to curate them with the company and come to an agreement… that I think is our crowning achievement, the thing that I’m most proud of.”
Hall and Prazuch have served as the two bargaining committee members for almost three years. They consistently met with Activision Blizzard’s lawyers, while the company was in the process of being acquired by Microsoft, and after the deal was finalized.
"If our unit of 19 people can do this, anybody can, as long as you're committed to actually just doing the work and seeing it through to the end," Hall says.
The Raven contract is one of very few in the video game industry, joining the likes of ZeniMax workers, who help develop Fallout and Elder Scrolls. But more developers express interest in unionizing each year.
"We've had a lot of people that had formed other unions that reached out to us and were like, You guys inspired us to do this," Hall says.
Over time, Hall and Prazuch hope the newly ratified contract could serve as a template for future video game unions.
"When we started our contract, we didn't have a lot of references in the video game industry, so we had to start a lot of it from scratch," Prazuch says. "I think that this makes it easier for future bargaining tables."
To celebrate and unwind, the two plan to play some of Xbox’s next big release, Grounded 2. That reminds me to ask them for any union-related Call of Duty references, if they had any.
“Stay frosty,” Prazuch says, after thinking for a second. “Don’t put that, please.”
“Make that the big quote,” Hall quips.
On a personal level, the two testers, who have known each other their whole adult lives, spoke of how they had grown from the drawn-out experience. Hall says she used to have a “crippling fear of public speaking” but through organizing, she was pushed to meet with Senator Bernie Sanders and speak at substantial labor events. As for Prazuch, this interview represents a milestone for her.
“You’re the first interview I've ever given the permission to use my name. So this is a monumental moment,” Prazuch says.
For our next newsletter, I’ll be publishing the full Q&A of the above interview, just for paid subscribers only, so please stay tuned!