Nearly 400 Battle.net workers vote to unionize, inspired by other Blizzard teams

This week, two unions have been formed by Battle.net workers, the team behind the game launcher for Blizzard and Activision. Thanks to reporting from Nicole Carpenter at Aftermath, we know that nearly 400 workers “have voted to unionize under the Communications Workers of America,” a national union representing various types of workers across the country. The group agreed to form two separate unions, “one for software engineers, product and project managers, designers, and others; and a second for localization, quality assurance, and customer support.” This announcement is also timely, as Microsoft’s acknowledgment of the unions comes just before the neutrality agreement between Microsoft and the CWA expires.

Two new unions form from Battle.net workers just ahead of the neutrality deadline

Over the last few years, many unions have formed at Blizzard, partly spurred by Microsoft's massive acquisition, finalized just over two years ago in 2023. The neutrality agreement was signed in 2022 as Microsoft worked to finalize the roughly $69 billion acquisition. This agreement essentially meant that Microsoft would not interfere with the formation of unions, not that it would support them, but just that it wouldn’t interfere. It also streamlined the process for workers, making unionization quicker than if they had to go through the National Labor Relations Board.

Aftermath spoke to Alex Kohn, a senior data scientist at Blizzard, who said: “The industry always treats the majority of [Quality Assurance] and [Customer Support] like they’re a separate entity, when in fact, we work very closely with them and we can’t really do our jobs without them.” Forming a union will give these workers a seat at the table, allowing them to advocate for their needs, security, and more. Plus, it could inspire other workers to do the same, as has happened at Blizzard.

In 2024, the team behind World of Warcraft unionized. Seeing the team behind one of the biggest and most profitable games take this step was inspiring for other teams at Blizzard. Less than a year later, in May 2025, the Overwatch team unionized, and now, Daniel Weltz, a principal software engineer who has worked at Blizzard for nearly 20 years, told Aftermath: “Even just the fact that World of Warcraft organized first, the biggest and most profitable team, gave a big push that made us think, ‘we could do this too.’” In an industry all too often hit with catastrophic layoffs, including thousands of Microsoft workers, it’s great to see some workers find more stable ground and inspire others to follow in their footsteps.

World of Warcraft

November 23, 2004

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• Overview

• Microsoft
• WoW / World of Warcraft
• Blizzard
• Battle.net
• Activision Blizzard