Following their first steps toward unionization in early December, today, roughly 300 Quality Assurance (QA) testers atZeniMax Mediahave officially voted in favor of forming a union. TheZeniMaxQA union is the biggest unionization effort in the games industry and the only labor union under parent company Microsoft.Throughout the past year, unionization has been a growing trend among game development studios, especially among QA testers. From January to May 2022, QA workers at the Activision Blizzard-owned Raven Software fought to establish their own union called the Game Workers Alliance (GWA), with significant pushback from Activision Blizzard from start to finish. In the wake of recent game studio unionization efforts,Microsoft has stated that it will recognize any unionization effortsat its studios, leaving the door open for ZeniMax QA workers to organize and vote to form a union. ZeniMax workers began organizing in early December, creating ZeniMax Workers United (ZWU) and holding an official vote for the creation of this union in early January 2023.RELATED:Microsoft Will Not ‘Stand in the Way’ of Activision Blizzard UnionToday, the roughly 300 ZeniMax QA employees voted “yes” in a supermajority to join the ZeniMax Workers United union, represented by the Communication Workers of America. A historic moment, the ZeniMax Workers United union is Microsoft’s first labor union and the largest union in the games industry so far. Keeping true to its word, Microsoft recognized the union without issue but has yet to make a statement at the time of this writing. With the ZeniMax Workers United union now established, the group’s next steps will involve collective bargaining for new contracts–a challenge that evenRaven Software’s unionized workersare still struggling to complete over half a year later.
On Twitter, ZeniMax QA workers have stated that they would like fair wages, better advancement opportunities, transparency, work-from-home options, and a seat at the table in decision-making at the company. Many of these demands come from a long history of crunch culture and low pay at ZeniMax and Bethesda, which was especially heavy and well-documented throughoutthe development ofFallout 76. While the fight for these contracts begins today, it may be quite an arduous process should the ZWU look to its peers for guidance.
Currently, the Raven Software-led Game Workers Alliance is still bargaining with Activision Blizzard for things like 10% wage increases and discussing concerns over Activision’s record of gender discrimination. However, it should be noted thatActivision Blizzard has fought the GWA at every turncompared to Microsoft, which has signed a labor neutrality agreement with the CWA representing the ZeniMax QA employees. As the biggest union in the games industry and under Microsoft, the ZeniMax Workers Union has plenty of work ahead in setting the standard for unionization in the games industry.
