Three Years After A Historic Unionizing Campaign, Raven Software’s ‘Call Of Duty’ QA Workers Have A Contract With Microsoft

Three years after a historic unionization campaign by Middleton, Wisconsin-based quality assurance (QA) testers at Raven Software, the group has unanimously ratified their first union contract with Microsoft. The agreement comes after three years of grassroots bargaining by members of the Game Workers Alliance‑CWA (GWA‑CWA).

The new agreement guarantees better pay and long-term work protections for the QA testers, who historically have been among the most overworked and underpaid in the industry. It includes:

• Pay increases: A guaranteed 10% wage hike over two years, plus merit- and promotion-based raises. Workers had gone 18 months without raises and nearly four years without promotions.
• Crunch limits: Seven days’ notice for mandatory overtime, no excessive overtime on consecutive weeks, flexible scheduling, and no mandatory overtime for most weeks in a quarter.
• Career and job security: Bridging temp and contract work into full-time credit, fair promotions, defined job roles, expanded disability accommodations, severance pay, recall rights, COBRA subsidies, and career transition services.

“After more than three years of organizing and bargaining, seeing it finally pay off feels incredible. It’s a contract that actually values the work QA does,” said Erin Hall, QA tester and bargaining committee member.

Fellow committee member Autumn Prazuch added: “Ratifying this contract is a win for game workers everywhere who are ready to take the first step toward a better future.”

CWA District 4 Vice President Linda L. Hinton praised the contract as proof “that when video game workers organize, they can win lasting changes in the workplace… setting new standards for quality assurance testers and video game workers overall.”

A long fight for recognition

Raven Software’s QA team first made headlines in January 2022 when 34 testers voted to form the Game Workers Alliance, making it the first union at a major U.S. AAA game studio. The move followed a December 2021 protest over the layoff of a dozen QA testers, which sparked a strike and drew national attention. Activision Blizzard resisted the effort, mounting an internal “vote no” campaign and reorganizing staff.

The organizing committee, made up largely of first-time labor activists, navigated labor law, bargaining strategy, and corporate pushback while working on one of gaming’s most high-profile franchises, Call of Duty. Their persistence carried them through to Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard and the eventual negotiation of a contract.

Part of a bigger shift at Microsoft

Raven’s contract follows other recent union wins at Microsoft companies under its 2022 labor neutrality agreement with CWA, including a group of 600 workers in California, Texas, and Minnesota, who formed the largest video game union in the U.S. in 2024, and ZeniMax Workers United‑CWA, which secured its first contract in June of this year.

Today, Microsoft recognizes 10 video game unions representing about 2,600 workers. That’s a significant shift for a major tech corporation that was previously seen as resistant to organized labor. It also sets a precedent with potential ripple effects across animation, VFX, and other digital media fields where workers face similar challenges to those in the gaming industry.