Raven’s Call of Duty QA Workers Secure First Union Contract With Microsoft After 3 Years of Negotiations
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Key points
- The workers at Raven Software, one of the key studios behind Call of Duty, have officially ratified their first union contract with Microsoft.
- The GWA-CWA became the first unit within Activision Blizzard to form a union in January 2022, prior to Microsoft’s acquisition of the company.
- The negotiations took almost three years.
The workers at Raven Software, one of the key studios behind Call of Duty, have officially ratified their first union contract between Game Workers Alliance-Communications Workers of America (GWA-CWA) members and Microsoft, according to a press release from the CWA published on Aug. 4, 2025.
It is worth noting that the GWA-CWA became the first unit within Activision Blizzard to form a union in January 2022, shortly before Microsoft announced plans to acquire the company.
Activision Blizzard’s subsidiary, Raven Software, includes a QA team that predominantly works on the Call of Duty series.
Following nearly three years of negotiations, the GWA-CWA secured for its members a guaranteed 10% wage increase over two years, with additional raises available through merit and promotions. This achievement comes after 18 months without any wage increases and 45 months without promotions.
On top of that, crunch time will be eliminated, with mandatory overtime requiring seven days’ notice. There will be no excessive overtime in back-to-back weeks, overtime will be scheduled flexibly, and most weeks in a quarter will have no mandatory overtime at all. Time worked as a temporary or contract employee will be bridged, and employees will benefit from defined job descriptions and a fair promotions process.
There will also be expanded disability accommodations and layoff protections, including severance pay, recall rights, generous COBRA (Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act) subsidies and career transition services.
