Business

A group of video game testers has formed Microsoft’s first labor union in the U.S., which will also be the largest in the video game industry. The Communications Workers of America said Tuesday that a majority of about 300 quality-assurance workers at Microsoft video game subsidiary ZeniMax Studios has voted to join the union. Microsoft already told the CWA it would accept the formation of the union at its Maryland-based video game subsidiary, fulfilling a promise it made to try to build public support for its $68.7 billion acquisition of another big game company, Activision Blizzard. Microsoft bought ZeniMax for $7.5 billion in 2021, giving the Xbox-maker control of ZeniMax’s well-known game publishing division Bethesda Softworks and popular game franchises such as The Elder Scrolls, Doom and Fallout.

A member of M&T’s board of directors has stepped down from the board after being promoted to president and CEO of a Fortune 500 company. Calvin Butler, of Baltimore, left the board Dec. 31, the same day he took the top spot at Exelon Corp. Exelon is a Chicago-based energy company with about $36.5 billion in annual revenue and 18,000 employees. It operates electric utilities in Illinois, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey and Washington, D.C. He has been an executive with the company for 14 years. Butler was promoted from chief operating officer to president in October. Less than a month later, the company announced he would be the next CEO.

It’s a good week for Novavax. The Gaithersburg vaccine maker has earned the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommendation to make its protein-based shot available as a booster to adults in the U.S., the last hurdle required before people can use it beyond a primary series. The CDC said late Wednesday that its director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, greenlit the decision — which gives initially vaccinated adults the choice to get Novavax’s jab as a booster instead of the updated Omicron-specific shots from Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna.

The Labor Department has proposed a rule that would make it easier for delivery drivers, janitors, construction workers and other independent contractors to be considered employees, granting them access to benefits and federal labor protections. The proposal would overturn a Trump-era move and restore Obama-era standards for determining whether workers qualify as employees or independent contractors.

Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. will roll out its local sports streaming service nationwide in September following what executives described as a “better than expected” soft launch earlier this summer. The Hunt Valley-based broadcaster rolled out its direct-to-consumer service, which it’s calling Bally Sports+, to five markets on June 23, streaming MLB games in Detroit, Kansas City, Miami, Milwaukee and Tampa.

Washington, D.C., and over half the states in the United States are raising their minimum wage this year, with residents of the nation’s capital getting the biggest boost. Beginning this past Sunday, D.C.’s living wage will increase to $16.50 an hour. This amount will later increase to $17 an hour on July 1, making it the highest minimum wage within the U.S., according to a news release from D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s office.