Microsoft and unions

Currently Microsoft workers in the United States do not have a current labor union. This is expected to change with the acquisition of Activision Blizzard, which already recognizes a union in one of its subsidiaries. Microsoft USA workers have been active in opposing military/law-enforcement contracts with their employer.

Microsoft employees in South Korea have a union since 2017, and German employees have works councils since 1998.

Germany

Microsoft Germany has 2,700 employees and 6 offices across Germany as of 2014. Employees are represented by local Works Councils and a Central Works Council since 1998.[1]

United States

Microsoft does not recognize any trade unions in the United States, however in June 2022 it announced a labor neutrality agreement with the Communications Workers of America (CWA). Microsoft agreed it will not interfere nor oppose unionization efforts. This agreement would also apply to Activision Blizzard (ABK), 60 days after the finalization of Microsoft's acquisition of it. This happened around the same time ABK started bargaining with CWA, and recognized a bargaining unit of quality assurance testers from one of its subsidiaries Raven Software, the first major-studio video-game union.[2]

Military contract

In February 2019, hundreds of Microsoft employees protested the company's war profiteering from a $480 million contract to develop virtual reality headsets for the United States Army.[3]

ICE contract

100s of Microsoft employees protested their employers government contracts with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).[4]

GitHub (subsidiary of Microsoft) has a $200,000 contract with ICE for the use of their on-site product GitHub Enterprise Server. This contract was renewed in 2019, despite internal opposition from many GitHub employees. In an email sent to employees, later posted to the GitHub blog on October 9, 2019, CEO Nat Friedman stated "The revenue from the purchase is less than $200,000 and not financially material for our company." He announced that GitHub had pledged to donate $500,000 to "nonprofit groups supporting immigrant communities targeted by the current administration."[5] In response, at least 150 GitHub employees signed an open letter re-stating their opposition to the contract, and denouncing alleged human rights abuses by ICE. As of November 13, 2019, five workers had resigned over the contract.[6][7][8]

The ICE contract dispute came into focus again in June 2020 due to the company's decision to abandon "master/slave" branch terminology, spurred by the George Floyd protests and Black Lives Matter movement.[9] Detractors of GitHub describe the branch renaming to be a form of performative activism and have urged GitHub to cancel their ICE contract instead.[10] An open letter from members of the open source community was shared on GitHub in December 2019, demanding that the company drop its contract with ICE and provide more transparency into how they conduct business and partnerships. The letter has been signed by more than 700 people.[11]

South Korea

In the Summer of 2017,[12] 370 workers (half of total workforce) of Microsoft Korea (South Korea MS) formed The Microsoft Korea Worker's Union.[13] It is led by Lee Ok-Hyoung, and affiliated to the Korea Confederation of Trade Union.[14][note 1]

On 24 November 2021, 90% of the union membership voted to go on strike over long working hours and a 3.5% pay increase that was rejected by the union membership.[13]

See also

Notes
  1. ETNews claims MS Korea union formed in July 2017, while The Investor states it formed in August 2017.

References
  1. Richter, Isabel (2014-09-01). "Microsoft Deutschland führt "Vertrauensarbeitsort" ein" [Microsoft Germany introduces "trusted workplace]. Microsoft Germany (in German). Retrieved 2023-09-22.
  2. "Microsoft, union enter into labor neutrality agreement". Reuters. 2022-06-13. Retrieved 2022-06-26.
  3. Wong, Julia Carrie (February 22, 2019). "'We won't be war profiteers': Microsoft workers protest $480m army contract". The Guardian. Archived from the original on February 23, 2019. Retrieved February 23, 2019.
  4. Birnbaum, Emily (2020-06-10). "Microsoft employees are pushing for change. Will it matter?". Protocol (news). Retrieved 2022-06-26.
  5. "GitHub and US Government developers". The GitHub Blog. GitHub. 9 October 2019. Archived from the original on March 22, 2021. Retrieved October 10, 2019.
  6. "As GitHub's Conference Begins, Five Employees Resign Over ICE Contract". Vice. 13 November 2019. Archived from the original on March 22, 2021. Retrieved November 15, 2019.
  7. Ghaffary, Shirin (9 October 2019). "GitHub is the latest tech company to face controversy over its contracts with ICE". Vox. Archived from the original on March 22, 2021. Retrieved November 15, 2019.
  8. "Letter from GitHub employees to CEO about the company's ICE contract". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on March 22, 2021. Retrieved November 15, 2019.
  9. "Microsoft's GitHub drops master-slave jargon". BBC News. 2020-06-15. Archived from the original on March 22, 2021. Retrieved 2020-07-01.
  10. "After GitHub CEO backs Black Lives Matter, workers demand an end to ICE contract". Los Angeles Times. 2020-06-13. Archived from the original on March 22, 2021. Retrieved 2020-07-01.
  11. "The Open Source Community Is Calling on Github to 'Drop ICE'". www.vice.com. 20 July 2020. Archived from the original on March 22, 2021. Retrieved 2020-10-19.
  12. Park, Ga-young (10 July 2018). "Oracle Korea's reputation on the line with record-long strike". The Investor. Retrieved 2022-06-26.
  13. "Microsoft Korea Workers' Union votes to strike over wages and disregard for workers' sacrifice during pandemic". UNI Global Union. Retrieved 2022-06-26.
  14. Kim, Jiseon (2017-10-17). "South Korea Oracle Establishes Its First Labor Union". ETNEWS. Retrieved 2022-06-26.
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