In a blog post, Microsoft said that as more and more people in the US technology industry seek better employment conditions, the company will carry out constructive cooperation with trade unions. Microsoft's statement is obviously different from the practices of Amazon and other companies we have seen so far. Amazon has tried to eliminate the efforts of trade unions in its companies.
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In the statement, Microsoft outlined four key principles it wanted to follow so that it could work openly and constructively with trade unions. These principles are as follows:
We believe in the importance of listening to employees.
We recognize that employees have the legal right to choose whether to establish or join a trade union.
When employees want to exercise their rights and Microsoft has made specific union suggestions, we are committed to taking a creative and cooperative approach with the union.
Based on our global labor experience, we are committed to maintaining close relations and common partnerships with all our employees, including those represented by trade unions.
Although Microsoft is setting a more positive tone for its internal trade unions, Brad Smith, the company's president, once said that employees never need to organize a dialogue with the company's top management to discuss how things can get better. Nevertheless, some people at the top of the company may still think that it is more suitable to use trade unions as a tool to solve their problems. Microsoft says it can accept this.
Although this is certainly a positive statement of Microsoft and will make a good start for the relationship between Microsoft and its employees in the trade union, we need to continue to observe how things develop in the cooperation practice between the company and the trade union.