Nearly 1,900 Blizzard Entertainment employees are now covered by their first union contract, after two years of bargaining with Microsoft over job security, AI usage, and pay benefits.
After two years of negotiations, Communications Workers of America announced the finalized agreement in a press release this morning. The contracts extend across all of the company’s union-represented groups, including Overwatch, Hearthstone, World of Warcraft, Diablo, Platform & Technology, and Quality Assurance. Additionally, the contract includes a clause about being recalled to open jobs for over a year after a layoff, a first in the Gaming industry.
The agreement arrives in the wake of Microsoft’s gaming division large-scale cuts over the past year, with thousands of employees being laid off. CWA noted that in light of those circumstances, job security has become an important topic at the bargaining table. Additionally, the news comes just days before Blizzard’s annual BlizzCon in Anaheim.
Blizzard’s contract with CWA includes wage increases, grievance procedures, and a newly-proposed three-day in-office hybrid scheduled. It also introduced new AI guardrails, requiring Blizzard to discuss and bargain over AI usage, as well as new “just cause” protections, and remote-work and disability accommodations. The contract also secures Blizzard employees an additional four weeks of severance, regardless of their tenure.
Daniel Weltz, a Principal Software Engineer who has spent 20 years on Blizzard’s Platform & Technology team, explained that the new contract builds on what already has kept people at the company: “I’ve been at Blizzard for 20 years because I love this company and the amazing people I work with. This contract secures a lot of what people already love about working here while adding strong protections around layoffs, job security, and remote work.”
The news come after July’s Xbox layoffs, in which Microsoft’s gaming unit announced 3,200 job cuts across the Xbox team, affecting dozens of union members. In light of these lay-offs, CWA members and allies organized rallies and protests across both the US and Canada, voicing their frustration. Protesters called for dignity and respect for laid-off workers, an on-going concern that they continue to raise. This larger context speaks to why recall rights and severance concerns were big talking points throughout the negotiations.
CWA president Claude Cummings Jr. framed the deal as a model for the rest of the industry to follow going forward.
“CWA members at Blizzard are leading the way for all XBOX studios, showing what can be achieved when video game workers have a strong voice in shaping their studios for the better,” Cummings said. “It’s a new day at Blizzard, where greater power for workers is translating into more innovative games for players.” The union president also expressed his pride and appreciation for the bargaining teams, highlighting their strength and willingness to “take on tough fight” and “set new standards for working people across our industries.”
The terms delineated in the agreement between Blizzard and CWA extend industry-wide as a signal. As Overwatch bargaining committee member and Quality Analyst Simon Hedrick put it, “This contract marks the beginning of a new era at Blizzard Entertainment, but it doesn’t stop with us. I look forward to the day that everyone in the industry can enjoy the protections that this contract affords us, like increased severance and recall rights in the event of a layoff and the ability to grieve injustices in the workplace.”
As Blizzard heads into BlizzCon, their flagship gaming event held this weekend in Southern California, their newly ratified union contract gives its workforce a stronger hand in shaping the future of their company.