Video game workers in Bloomington ready to strike for first contract

October 23, 2026 by Leave a Comment

Members of CWA Local 2750 held a contract rally at Activision’s Bloomington quality-assurance site in August 2026.

A week before the much-anticipated “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4” was set to launch, video game workers bargaining a first union contract with the game’s Microsoft-owned publishing company announced that they had voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike.

Activision Quality Assurance United-CWA, a bargaining unit of about 450 quality-assurance workers, including 300 based in Bloomington, has been in negotiations with Microsoft-owned Activision for over two years.

Union members are still waiting for management to get serious about the issues they brought to the table, CWA Local 7250 member Emily Danko said.

“Bargaining has been a long, exhausting process spanning over two years, with our committee making responsible moves while the company continues to stall on critical issues like wages, accommodations, and worker protections,” Danko, who works at the Bloomington site, said. “Despite our efforts to bargain in good faith, meaningful progress has been difficult, leaving key issues unresolved.”

The authorization vote, also approved by workers at Quality Assurance facilities in Texas and California, empowers Communications Workers of America President Claude Cummings Jr. to call a strike if negotiations continue to stall.

The strike vote comes at a critical time in the production and release cycle of one of Activision’s most popular – and profitable – franchises. “Call of Duty” is set to launch worldwide today.

“Our members remain united and continue to mobilize, but we are exploring every option available to secure the fair contract we deserve,” Danko said.

Quality Assurance workers won recognition of their union in March 2024 and entered bargaining that August seeking wage increases, guardrails on the company’s use of contractors and artificial intelligence, and protections around their right to seek accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Microsoft has failed to bargain in good faith on any of those issues, CWA District 7 Vice President Susie McAllister said.

“The results of the strike authorization vote send a clear message to Activision management: it is time to stop playing games because our members are united and prepared to do what it takes to win the strong contract they deserve,” McAllister said.

In Bloomington, Local 7250 members have begun ramping up the pressure on Activision to settle a fair deal. Nearly 50 members joined a midday rally in August, joining other Microsoft workers in a nationwide day of action. They rallied again the day before CWA announced results of the strike vote.

“We’re all kind of feeling that pinch,” union steward Andrew Snell said. “It’s taken two years. It’s taken a really long time. We’re fighting tooth and nail just to get this contract done, but we’re getting closer.”

Click here to contribute to Activision Quality Assurance workers’ strike fund.

– Michael Moore, UA editor

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Bloomington video game workers ‘fighting tooth and nail’ with Microsoft for first contract

August 27, 2026 by

Activision workers march from their office in Bloomington to demonstrate along Old Shakopee Road during the “Save Our Devs” national day of action.

BLOOMINGTON – Video game workers rallied Aug. 18 for a fair first contract with their Microsoft-owned publishing firm, while also standing in solidarity with workers across the country fighting layoffs and corporate greed in Microsoft’s gaming studios.

Members of Activision Quality Assurance United, an affiliate of the Communications Workers of America (CWA), held “Save Our Devs” rallies at Activision worksites in Minnesota, Texas and California.

Union members called for a nationwide day of action after Microsoft announced in July that it would shutter some gaming studios and lay off over 3,200 workers in its XBOX division, which includes Activision. The first round of layoffs, scheduled this month, will impact 1,600 XBOX workers, including hundreds of union members.

So far, the layoffs have spared Activision Quality Assurance United members, but union steward Andrew Snell said the union wanted to join workers and gamers across the country voicing their anger over the unilateral path Microsoft has laid out for XBOX.

“It’s good for us to have a good relationship with our developers in order to have a quality game that goes out,” Snell said, adding that labor law requires the company to engage workers’ union in bargaining over discretionary layoffs.

Quality assurance workers also want to keep the pressure on Microsoft to settle a first contract with their bargaining unit, which brings together about 450 workers across the three facilities, including roughly 300 members of CWA Local 7250 in Bloomington.

The unit won recognition of their union in March 2024 and opened negotiations with Microsoft five months later. The “Save Our Devs” rally came as those talks were poised to enter a third year.

Snell, a quality assurance specialist with six years of experience at Activision, said progress toward a contract has been steady, with the two sides meeting three days per month.

Outstanding issues include wages and job security. Union members also want to secure workplace accommodations for those who need them, pointing to a lack of transparency and consistency in Activision’s office policies.

“I’ll go to my manager with a question about a particular policy, and they’ll come back with something,” Snell said. “Then I’ll go ask two or three other managers for someone else, and they’ll all have different answers. So it kind of depends on which manager you ask until you go and ask somebody higher up. It would be helpful if people were all on the same page.”

A union contract would accomplish just that, and nearly 50 union members joined the rally in Bloomington to let Microsoft know they are running out of patience with the bargaining process.

“We’re all kind of feeling that pinch,” Snell said. “It’s taken two years. It’s taken a really long time. We’re fighting tooth and nail just to get this contract done, but we’re getting closer.”

Learn more about forming a union in the video game industry at uvw-cwa.org.

– Michael Moore, Union Advocate editor

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Newly unionized Chisago Lakes custodians tap community support in first contract campaign

November 10, 2021 by

Custodians and supporters rally in advance of a first mediation session with the Chisago Lakes schools.

If administrators in the Chisago Lakes School District thought they could push their school custodians around without anyone noticing, then the semi-truck blaring its horn outside their offices at 8 a.m. Monday was a wakeup call in more ways than one.

The custodians, who formed a union earlier this year, rallied with dozens of supporters on the day of their first scheduled mediation session with the district, which has shown little interest, workers said, in addressing their concerns about wages, workloads and turnover.

The rally drew support from educators and other school staff. The local labor community turned out too, most notably with the Teamsters Local 120 big rig making a few passes through the district’s parking lot.

Scott Carlson, a custodian with three years of experience in Chisago Lakes, said he and fellow union members have appreciated the outpouring of encouragement in recent weeks.

“In my years with the district, I’ve always been treated with respect and as an equal by the teachers, parents and staff,” Carlson said. “Unfortunately, that does not seem to resonate within the walls of our district office.”

Kera Peterson, shown speaking at a union rally in the Chisago Lakes School District, is president of the Saint Paul Regional Labor Federation.

The bargaining unit of about 20 custodians, represented by Service Employees (SEIU) Local 284, came together quickly after organizing began in January.

Carlson said conditions had reached a tipping point, with custodians in some buildings tasked with 40 percent more area-cleaning responsibilities than industry standards recommend, according to the school district’s own evaluation. And that’s without taking into account extra tasks required for pandemic safety.

Custodians’ wages start at just over $14 per hour – too low to attract and retain the workers needed to do the job right, union steward Chris Marks said. About one-third of the bargaining unit already has turned over, Carlson added, since custodians organized their union last school year.

“You can go to Kwik Trip and make more money working the second shift, just cashiering,” said Marks, the lead custodian at Chisago Lakes High School. “We want longevity. We need it to keep our students healthy, our buildings healthy.”

But in negotiations, the district has shown more interest in keeping the newly unionized custodians under management’s thumb.

In recent years, Chisago Lakes custodians’ terms and conditions of employment were governed by an agreement – but not a union contract – with the district. School administrators hand-picked two negotiators to represent custodians in drawing up the agreement.

“The human resource person representing the district told our reps what the board would or wouldn’t accept, and they abided by that,” Carlson said.

Now that custodians have a real seat at the table in collective bargaining, the district has responded by bringing in a high-priced, anti-union attorney, who did most of the talking in two sessions before the sides entered mediation, according to workers.

Custodians, Marks said, drafted a proposal for their first contract and presented it to the district at the first session.

“The attorney redlined the whole thing and put all the verbiage back from our previous agreement, including the pay scale,” Marks said. “He handed it back and said, ‘There you go, that’s our offer.’

“But they did change one thing: they took a 90-day probationary period and changed it to nine months.”

That district administrators would rather pay a lawyer to run out the clock than offer community members who maintain school facilities a living wage didn’t sit well with supporters at the rally Monday morning.

“They’re willing to pay him $250 an hour to do nothing,” Local 284 President Kelly Gibbons said. “He’s here to make his money and take it home to his family, but these folks can’t pay their bills.”

Kera Peterson, president of the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation, which represents over 50,000 union members in Chisago, Dakota, Ramsey and Washington counties, urged custodians to keep up their fight – and reminded them that union members never fight alone.

“Our labor community will be here, standing in solidarity with the custodians in Chisago Lakes Schools, for as long as it takes,” she said.

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Organizing drive pays off for big-box janitors with landmark first contract

February 22, 2017 by
Retail janitors celebrated recognition of their union last fall after a six-year campaign.

Retail janitors celebrated recognition of their union last fall after a six-year campaign.

What’s the value of a union contract? For nearly 500 retail janitors in the Twin Cities, who made history last year by forming the industry’s first metro-wide union, it’s a cool $4.5 million in wage increases and paid time off over the course of their new, three-year contract.

Local 26 of the Service Employees International Union, which represented the janitors who clean big-box stores like Best Buy, Target, Macy’s and others in negotiations with cleaning subcontractors, announced the landmark agreement in a press release today, calling it a “path forward for working families” to combat rising income inequality.

“While working people are under attack right now from the billionaires in charge of our country, we are showing that we can win if we stick together and fight,” said Maricela Flores, an employee of Carlson Building Maintenance who cleans the Target in Shakopee.

The “vast majority” of janitors in the bargaining unit are people of color, according to Local 26, so the contract’s gains will help combat Minnesota’s yawning disparities between white workers and workers of color.

The contract goes into effect immediately, and many union members will see their hourly wages jump from $9.50 to $11. They include Lizbet Vega Lopez, a Carlson employee who has cleaned the Cub Foods in Brooklyn Park for 12 years.

“This was not an easy fight, but I am so glad we stuck together and now have a union contract that moves us forward,” Lopez said. “I hope others will see our fight and realize that no matter how difficult the challenge may be, you can win positive changes if you are willing to stand up to those in power.”

In addition to wage increases and PTO, workers won up to three weeks of vacation time, stronger workplace protections and job security, and guidelines for workload conditions when covering absences.

Retail janitors’ new union grew out of a six-year campaign facilitated by CTUL, a Twin Cities worker center. Workers and community allies pressured corporations like Target and Best Buy to take responsibility for low wages and unsafe working conditions inside their Twin Cities stores by signing onto a “Responsible Contractor Policy.”

The campaign continues at Kohl’s, Home Depot and other big-box stores.

“We are contracted to clean the stores of some of the biggest corporations in the world, so it was a big win just to get to the negotiation table with our employers, and now we have won gains that cannot be taken away,” Lopez said. “We weren’t waiting on Trump’s empty promises and scapegoating. We decided to fight back and win changes for ourselves, and hope others do too!”

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Day One: Minnesota home care workers’ first contract takes effect today

July 1, 2015 by
Pro-union home health care workers celebrated the results of their organizing election last August.

Pro-union home health care workers celebrated the results of their organizing election last August.

The union contract that goes into effect today between the State of Minnesota and home care workers statewide is a big deal to Tallaya Byers. But it’s about more than paid time off, wage increases and other benefits that kick in today, the 38-year-old from St. Paul said.

“I’m being recognized as an employee,” said Byers, who provides care for her 6-year-old autistic son. “It’s really great to be recognized now and to know that there’s a family – a union family – that is looking out for my best interests.”

The historic first contract covers 27,000 workers like Byers who provide state-subsidized, in-home care for elderly and disabled Minnesotans.

Ratified by members of SEIU Healthcare Minnesota and approved by state lawmakers last session, the contract increases the wage floor in the industry to $10.50 this year (and $11 next year), allows workers to accrue up to five paid-time-off days per year and provides access to training opportunities and grievance procedures.

It’s a big step forward for home care workers, who organized a union to gain a stronger voice in an industry that took for granted a low-wage, high-turnover workforce. That’s an insult not only to home care workers, Byers said, but to the seniors and people with disabilities they serve.

“A lot of people – disabled adults, senior citizens – are in their homes instead of nursing homes because of the work we do,” she said said. “For a lot of people, this is not just something they want to do for family members, but as a career. Now they can get compensated, get training – it’s really great.”

Negotiations between SEIU Healthcare Minnesota and the state began after workers voted decisively to form a union in August 2014. The two sides reached a tentative agreement in January, and over 95 percent of voting members ratified the agreement.

Although membership in the bargaining unit is voluntary, the contract will cover all home care workers statewide. Byers said she expects more will sign up to become union members after the benefits of the new contract hit home.

“For a lot of people, our union is still brand new,” Byers said. “So we still have a lot of information to get out to the PCA’s about why it’s important and how beneficial it is.”

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In negotiations on first contract, North Star Steel dropped anchor

August 1, 2013 by

North Star Steel approached “a new level of absurdity” in an attempt to avoid negotiating a first contract with 30 clerical and sales employees at its Newport facility, The Advocate reported in August 1988.

The workers had voted a year earlier to join the United Steelworkers, but management refused to bargain with the union. After the National Labor Relations Board ruled the company must sit down and negotiate with workers, the company announced plans to appeal the decision.

The Advocate projected the appeal would delay the collective-bargaining process by at least six months, calling it “an example of how the system can be used to stifle the rights of the people it is supposed to protect.”

Steelworkers organizer Mike Denardo put it this way: “They’re delaying us to death.

“With the money they’ve spent on fighting these few workers they could have given them a good first contract with good wages and benefits,” he added.

Unfortunately, the delay tactic lives on among anti-union employers. Look no further than HealthEast, which has been dragging out negotiations with nurses in its Home Care division since they voted to join the Minnesota Nurses Association three years ago. (See story on Page 7.)

North Star Steel dragged its feet into 1990, when the Steelworkers announced plans to target North Star’s parent company, Cargill, with a publicity campaign.

[The Union Advocate’s “This Month in the Archives” feature offers a look back at what the newspaper was reporting from 5 to 100 years ago. Our digital archives are online, searchable and free to anyone. Click here for access.]

Demonstrators targeted Walker Methodist in August 2003.

Demonstrators targeted Walker Methodist in August 2003.

10 Years Ago: Rally for justice at Walker Methodist

Speaking of employers notorious for stalling… In August 2003, more than 400 people marched down South Bryant Avenue in Minneapolis to a rally outside Walker Methodist Health Center, which dragged out contract negotiations with about 340 AFSCME members for nearly five years.

Linda Chavez-Thompson, executive vice president of the national AFL-CIO, attended the rally. “If you’re not going to live up to the principles of the Methodist Church, why are you using the Methodist name?” she asked.

It was the beginning of a long contract struggle – one workers finally won in April 2008.

50 Years Ago: Labor leaders, Twins players team to lift spirits in children’s hospitals

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Delegates to the St. Paul Trades and Labor Assembly joined Twins players in cheering up patients at two Twin Cities children’s hospitals in August 1963. Together, they distributed Twins souvenirs and “Miss Union Maid” dolls (dress, decorated with union labels, included!). From left: Assembly President Charles Rafferty (left) and Secretary-Treasurer E.D. McKinnon at Gillette State Hospital; Margaret Kelly of the St. Paul Federation of Teachers at the Shriners Hospital; and Mrs. Tobey Lapakko, chair of the assembly’s Human Rights Committee, at Gillette Hospital with Twins third baseman Rich Rollins, who “was as big an attraction as the gifts,” The Advocate quipped. “Rollins was still able to hold a bat after developing writer’s cramp autographing each of the Twins yearbooks handed out.”

75 Years Ago: Minimum wage faces legal challenge

A law establishing a minimum wage for working women, passed by the 1938 Minnesota Legislature, drew a swift legal challenge from owners of two businesses, a laundry in Detroit Lakes and a café in New Ulm, who claimed the law “would in effect bankrupt them,” The Union Advocate reported.

The plaintiffs filed suit in federal court, and a three-judge panel heard arguments in August 1938.

A number of “interveners,” including the Western Union Telegraph Company, joined the suit. According to The Advocate, these companies were eager to test the validity of the minimum-wage law, which established a sliding wage scale for women workers ranging from $11 per week in rural areas to $15 per week in cities.

The plaintiffs’ suit alleged the state’s industrial commission, in enforcing a minimum wage, “unlawfully, wrongfully, illegally and arbitrarily . . . deprived the plaintiffs … of their property without due process of law,” and in doing so violated the 14th Amendment.

The Minnesota State Federation of Labor said it would intervene to help uphold the minimum-wage law. Presumably, the federation took issue with the argument that laundry and café workers be considered “property” of their employers.

The justices deferred their decision, but the lawsuit was later withdrawn.

100 Years Ago: Plumbers love a parade

As has become customary in recent years, the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation will sponsor a marching unit in the daily parade through the Minnesota State Fairgrounds on Labor Day this year.

The event draws hundreds of union members from a wide range of RLF affiliate unions, from teachers and nurses to public employees and members of the Building Trades, all marching together behind Labor’s banner.

It’s a family-friendly, positive event, and – as an added perk – it comes with a free ticket to the State Fair for anyone who marches.

One hundred years ago there were no such enticements for union members in St. Paul’s Labor Day parade. In fact, it was less carrot and much more stick.

According to the Aug. 29, 1913, edition of The Advocate, Plumbers Local 34 was so “dead earnest in its determination to make its part of the Labor Day parade a great success” that it threatened members who failed to participate with financial penalty.

“Every member who fails to appear in the line without a reason that is satisfactory to the union will have to pay a fine of $5.”

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