A union of Microsoft gaming employees has won a tentative agreement with the company, in what’s being called a first for the industry.
The Communications Workers of America (CWA), which represents over 300 quality assurance workers at ZeniMax Studios, announced the deal on Friday. ZeniMax, acquired by Microsoft in 2020, is the parent company of video game developers Arkane Studios, id Software, and MachineGames, as well as the publisher Bethesda Softworks.
The ZeniMax Workers United-CWA first unionized in 2023, and after two years of negotiating, they have reached a contractual agreement with Microsoft. According to the announcement, the contract enshrines wage increases and salary minimums for employees, as well as protections against arbitrary dismissal, grievance procedures, and a crediting policy that acknowledges QA worker contributions.
The contract also includes an agreement from 2023 concerning AI. ZeniMax agreed to provide notice of AI implementation that would impact union members’ work, and the opportunity to bargain those impacts.
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“Going toe-to-toe with one of the largest corporations in the world isn’t a small feat. This is a monumental victory for all current video game workers and for those that come after,” Page Branson, Senior II QA Tester and ZeniMax Workers United-CWA bargaining committee member, said in the press release.
“Workers in the video game industry are demonstrating once again that collective power works. This agreement shows what’s possible when workers stand together and refuse to accept the status quo,” CWA President Claude Cummings Jr. said in the release.
Employees at video game studios have pushed to organize in recent years. Last year, workers at Bethesda Studios and Activision QA workers formed a union. In March, the CWA announced an industry-wide U.S. and Canada union called the United Videogame Workers-CWA.
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