When the powerful Communications Workers of America union supported Microsoft’s takeover of Activision, it argued that the deal would benefit “the company’s workers and the broader video game labor market.” Its endorsement added to Microsoft’s extensive political efforts to win approval for the deal, which closed last month.

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Last year, the American Economic Liberties Project, a progressive think tank, urged regulators to consider labor as part of antitrust reviews, citing deals that unions supported but were then followed by layoffs, including US Airways and American Airlines and Albertsons and Safeway.

“As a general rule unions shouldn’t support mergers,” Matt Stoller, the research director at the A.E.L.P., wrote on social media after the layoffs at Activision were announced.

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