Another Department Within Activision Casts Votes to Form a Union

Communications Workers of America announced on March 25 that user-research workers at Activision have voted to form a union that Microsoft is already willing to recognize.

Officially called Activision User Research Union-CWA, this is the first video-game-researcher union of its kind in the North American video game industry. A press release about the union’s formation explains that it wants to fight for better wages and job security for those working in user research at the Call of Duty maker.

The massive number of layoffs the video game industry has seen over the past couple of years was also cited as a reason for the union’s formation. Organizing Committee member Pat Dimaandal argues that “workers should not feel punished for pursuing a career that they love, and that’s why we’re organizing toward long-term, sustainable careers in this industry.”

The CWA confirms that there are now over 2,000 unionized workers at Microsoft-owned studios after the formation of this union. Unionization efforts began at Activision several years ago in the wake of the Civil Rights lawsuit against Activision Blizzard. Raven Software was the first studio to unionize, and Microsoft had to agree to allow unionization efforts at its studios during the process of acquiring Activision Blizzard. That opened the door to unions like this one and others at Microsoft-owned companies like ZeniMax Online.

CWA recently announced the United Videogame Workers-CWA union at GDC 2025 for those not working at a company like Microsoft. UVW-CWA is an industry-wide union that any game developer can join, and the CWA has confirmed it has already gotten over 350 members since it was announced last week.