{"id":610518,"date":"2023-02-21T12:24:00","date_gmt":"2023-02-21T18:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.sellorbuyhomefast.com\/index.php\/2023\/02\/21\/cwa-president-calls-on-european-commission-to-approve-microsoft-activision-merger\/"},"modified":"2023-02-21T12:24:00","modified_gmt":"2023-02-21T18:24:00","slug":"cwa-president-calls-on-european-commission-to-approve-microsoft-activision-merger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2023\/02\/21\/cwa-president-calls-on-european-commission-to-approve-microsoft-activision-merger\/","title":{"rendered":"CWA president calls on European Commission to approve Microsoft-Activision merger"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>The Communications Workers of America (CWA) has gone to bat for Microsoft&#8217;s acquisition of Activision Blizzard again.\u00a0CWA president <a href=\"https:\/\/cwa-union.org\/sites\/default\/files\/2023-02\/20230220_CWA_Letter_to_EC_on_MSFT_ABK_Hearing.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Chris Shelton<\/a> recently\u00a0sent a letter to the European Commission (EC) asking it to approve the deal between the two game publishers, as it would &#8220;help make history in rebalancing power in labor markets.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>This Microsoft defense from the\u00a0CWA released on February 20, the day before\u00a0Microsoft has to make a case with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gamedeveloper.com\/business\/microsoft-will-attend-eu-hearing-to-defend-activision-blizzard-deal\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">EU regulators<\/a> to allow its $68.7 billion merger to go through.<\/p>\n<p>Shelton&#8217;s letter specifically notes that it&#8217;s raised concerns about the effect of Microsoft&#8217;s acquisition on the larger industry. Those concerns with the Xbox maker have reportedly &#8220;resulted in an agreement to ensure the workers of Activision Blizzard have a clear path to collective bargaining if the merger is completed.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In July 2022, the CWA told\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gamedeveloper.com\/business\/labor-union-cwa-informs-ftc-it-will-support-microsoft-s-purchase-of-activision-blizzard\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the FTC<\/a> that it would back the merger, and has helped Microsoft enter into several <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gamedeveloper.com\/business\/microsoft-signs-labor-neutrality-agreement-with-cwa-ahead-of-activision-blizzard-deal\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">neutrality agreements<\/a> as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gamedeveloper.com\/business\/employees-at-i-spellbreak-i-developer-proletariat-are-unionizing\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Activision Blizzard<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gamedeveloper.com\/business\/zenimax-studios-qa-workers-to-vote-on-unionization\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bethesda&#8217;s<\/a> QA employees have unionized. The media labor union believes its\u00a0working\u00a0relationship\u00a0with Microsoft lets\u00a0it\u00a0determine how the merger will benefit Activision Blizzard employees.\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2>A Path to Collective Bargaining<\/h2>\n<p>His letter further added that Microsoft keeping its word\u00a0would &#8220;give employees a seat at the table and ensure that the acquisition of Activision Blizzard benefits the company&#8217;s workers and the broader video game labor market.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>As further proof, one Activision Blizzard employee, who is a part of the pro-worker group A Better ABK,\u00a0was cited in Shelton&#8217;s letter. That employee\u00a0said the CWA&#8217;s relationship with Microsoft was a &#8220;game-changer,&#8221;\u00a0and helped ensure that &#8220;ABK\u00a0will have an easy path to recognition and easier access to collective action.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Even if the EU approves the merger, Microsoft still has a ways to go before it can truly acquire Activision Blizzard. It still has to contend with the investigation by fellow UK regulator the CMA, along with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gamedeveloper.com\/business\/the-ftc-is-suing-microsoft-to-block-its-activision-blizzard-merger\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">FTC&#8217;s lawsuit<\/a> in the United States.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In the midst of all this, the tech giant has attempted to offer concessions to rivals Nintendo and Sony, such as offering the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gamedeveloper.com\/business\/microsoft-pledges-to-bring-call-of-duty-to-nintendo-platforms-for-the-next-decade\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Call of Duty franchise<\/a> multiplatform status\u00a0for a full decade. While Sony still hasn&#8217;t accepted the offer,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gamedeveloper.com\/business\/microsoft-pledges-to-bring-call-of-duty-to-nintendo-platforms-for-the-next-decade\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Nintendo<\/a>\u00a0recently did, meaning the Call of Duty franchise will come to Nintendo if the offer goes through.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gamedeveloper.com\/business\/cwa-president-calls-on-european-commission-to-approve-microsoft-activision-merger\" class=\"button purchase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a><br \/>\n Justin Carter, Contributing Editor<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Communications Workers of America (CWA) has gone to bat for Microsoft&#8217;s acquisition of Activision Blizzard again.\u00a0CWA president Chris Shelton recently\u00a0sent a letter to the European Commission (EC) asking it to approve the deal between the two game publishers, as it would &#8220;help make history in rebalancing power in labor markets.&#8221; This Microsoft defense from [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":610519,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[127,534,851],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-610518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-calls","category-financial","category-president"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=610518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610518\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/610519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=610518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=610518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=610518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}