In early 2024, Activision Blizzard, under novel owner Microsoft, sent an email to employees of its Stockholm office informing them that one of the company’s most popular benefits would expire. In doing so, the company inadvertently sparked unionization efforts.
IGN has learned that last fall, more than a hundred employees at the Stockholm headquarters of mobile game maker King’s formed a union club with Unionen, Sweden’s largest labor union. The group has since gained recognition and is working with the company’s management in hopes of eventually signing a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) that will govern its work environment, policies and benefits in the future.
Trade unions in Sweden are slightly different than those that workers in the US may be familiar with. In Sweden, eligible employees can join a trade union representing the type of work they do at any time, regardless of whether their company has organized itself or not. As a result, around 70% of the country is unionized (according to data provided by Unionen), and the country has a long history of more union-friendly laws than many other countries. Trade unions negotiate extensively with their sectors on working conditions such as pay and infirmed leave, and individual trade union membership may confer diminutive additional benefits on workers.
But there is another aspect to trade union membership in Sweden, namely the formation of a trade union club and securing the CBA. If enough employees join the same union at a company, they can vote to appoint a union board to negotiate the CBA on their behalf. That CBA can provide them with additional workplace-specific benefits similar to American union contracts, and that local union boards can even gain representation at the highest levels of company management and a voice in major company decisions. This is exactly what happened at King Stockholm, in line with a growing trend in the gaming industry that can already be seen in Swedish gaming companies such as Interactive Paradox AND, most recently Avalanche Studios.
The doctor left
I spoke to Kajsa Sima Falck, engineering manager at King in Stockholm and board member of King Stockholm’s Unionen division. Falck explained to me that before 2024, union talks at the company were relatively composed. There was a Slack channel dedicated to union discussions for a diminutive handful of union members, but it was largely unused. He recalls that it only had about nine or ten members.
However, in early January, Activision Blizzard employees in Stockholm received an email from management containing devastating news. Falck explains that during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Stockholm office received an unusual benefit: a free, private doctor for themselves and their families. The doctor, who is rumored to have been hand-picked by then-CEO Bobby Kotick, quickly became extremely popular with the staff. Falck said she was good at her job, responded quickly to calls and emails, played a key role in supporting employees during the pandemic and showed empathy toward employees’ requests for infirmed leave or mental health certification. Over time, most of the staff came to rely on her for their health care.
That’s why it was so devastating when, shortly after Microsoft acquired Activision Blizzard, employees were told that this benefit would be taken away. Moreover, employees were given only one week’s notice of the end of this benefit, which meant that individuals and families suddenly had to frantically search for a novel doctor and novel health care options.
Falck told me that King Stockholm employees were usually quite composed when it came to company problems and complaints. But not this time. It seemed all talked about it, and there were many posts about the change in the general Slack channel in Stockholm.
“We had no bargaining power,” he says. “I mean, if we had a CBA, we could try to negotiate and talk to our employer.”
No gods, only the king
Since its official formation, King’s union has met with Activision Blizzard HR several times to discuss how the two groups will communicate in the future, and Falck says their response has been “neutral.” This was to be expected, given the legal protection of trade unions in Sweden. But Microsoft has also publicly committed to doing so adopting a “neutral approach” to trade unionsAND reports from others newly established trade unions internally the company seems to indicate that it is implementing this globally.
Falck says she and other union members have no doubt it’s too overdue to get their private doctor benefits back, much less get back the same beloved doctor who was so popular with the staff. But he says he expects they will eventually begin to bargain with the company to obtain a CBA that will protect other popular benefits from being stripped of them in the same way.
Other significant issues that Falck can raise include transparency of pay and information within the company, as well as protection and transparency of company reorganizations and, most importantly, layoffs. But what’s most significant to Falck and her colleagues is the ability to influence their workplace for the benefit of everyone. As Unionen Stockholm organizer Timo Rybak explains:
“Labor law in Sweden is still skewed towards the employer, his rights are greater than those of employees. But of course, what rights do you have as an employee, which should you protect and be aware of, and this is related to the fact that forming trade unions is also a way to learn about your rights, especially in an industry such as game development or IT in general, which it has a very large community of immigrant workers.”
Falck points out that the union has already seen the benefits of simply sharing information about workers’ rights, arguing that many European and American game developers have come to work at King over the years and don’t necessarily understand what their rights are. Organizing allowed them to share information and educate each other about their rights as workers to enable them to better advocate for themselves individually and as a group.
For Falck and her colleagues, the formation of a union caucus at King may have begun as a reaction to an unpopular change. But ultimately, his goal is to protect what they love in a job they care deeply about. “It’s just a completely different world and a different company that we’re getting used to. So we want to protect what is king, what is the culture and what are the benefits.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Her posts can be found on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Have a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
