Activision QA testers vote to strike after more than two years without a contract

• The group still does not have its first collective bargaining agreement.
• Workers have now voted to authorize a strike if talks do not move forward.

What happened

Activision QA testers, many of whom work in Minnesota, formed a union in March 2024, according to the source. The group includes nearly 600 workers negotiating through the AQAU-CWA bargaining committee. The effort also sits within the broader Microsoft and Activision context, since Microsoft owns Activision.

Those talks over a first contract have now stalled. The union says Activision and parent company Microsoft remain deadlocked on pay, accommodations, worker protections, AI guardrails, and the use of contractors. According to the source, those are the main issues still without an agreement. This is not about renewing an existing contract, but about securing the first collective bargaining agreement for this group of testers.

According to the source, the testers have therefore voted to authorize a strike if no progress is made. Authorizing a strike does not mean a walkout will begin immediately, but it does give the union the option to take that step if negotiations continue to stall. QA functional tester Emily Danko, a member of the bargaining committee, says talks have been going on for more than two years and meaningful progress has been hard to achieve.

The source also links the labor dispute to production on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4. That indicates the testers are working on the game ahead of its planned launch. At the same time, the source does not make clear whether all nearly 600 union members are directly assigned to that title. It is also not confirmed that a strike has already begun; this is only authorization to strike if talks do not improve.

Background

The dispute centers on the first contract between the QA testers and Activision/Microsoft. The source explicitly lists pay, accommodations, worker protections, AI guardrails, and contractor use as the key points of contention. That makes the issue about both compensation and working conditions, as well as rules around technology in the workplace.

The source also says the testers are working on Modern Warfare 4, but does not clarify whether all union members are directly assigned to that game. What is clear is that the timing of the talks overlaps with the release window for the title, which the source says is planned for 16 October 2026. That makes the labor dispute especially visible within the broader Call of Duty schedule, though the source does not confirm that the release itself will be affected by union action.

Emily Danko is named in the source as a QA functional tester and a member of the bargaining committee. Her comment that negotiations have been going on for more than two years underscores how long the process has dragged on. The source also names the AQAU-CWA bargaining committee as the body representing the testers in talks. No response from Activision or Microsoft is confirmed in the provided material, so no company position can be inferred from it.

It is also important that the source only refers to authorization for a strike. There is still no confirmation that workers have actually walked out. The open question is whether the union will ultimately call a strike, or whether negotiations will resume before that becomes necessary.

Related GAME-scanner articles

• Activision confirms new Call of Duty subseries alongside Black Ops and Modern Warfare
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 gets campaign early access on 16 October and full release on 23 October
• Microsoft tests stricter Xbox game exclusivity in reported survey

Sources

• Kotaku: Modern Warfare 4 testers vote to authorize union strike as contract negotiations stall