A group of video game testers form the first Microsoft union in the US, which will also become the largest in the video game industry.
Communications Workers of America said Tuesday that a majority of the approximately 300 quality assurance professionals at ZeniMax Studios, a Microsoft subsidiary, voted to join the union.
Microsoft has already told the CWA that it will agree to a unionization at its Maryland video game subsidiary, fulfilling a promise it has made to try to build public support for its $68.7 billion acquisition of another major gaming company, Activision Blizzard.
Microsoft bought ZeniMax for $7.5 billion in 2021, giving Xbox maker control over Bethesda Softworks’ renowned game publishing arm ZeniMax and popular game franchises like The Elder Scrolls, Doom and Fallout.
Senior game tester Wayne Dayberry said in an interview with The Associated Press that the unionization campaign began before Microsoft took over and reflected workplace concerns that are prevalent in video game companies.
“Across the industry, QA departments are treated poorly, paid very little, and treated like replacement cogs,” said Dayberry, who spent five years at ZeniMax headquarters in Rockville, Maryland, on games like Fallout, Prey and The Evil Within. .
“There is no great merit in that,” he said. “That’s what we hope to show people in the industry who are in similar situations, that if we can do it, they can do it too.”
The unionization campaign has been accelerated by Microsoft’s ongoing bid to buy California gaming giant Activision Blizzard. Microsoft, based in Redmond, Washington, entered into an agreement with the CWA union in June to remain neutral if Activision Blizzard workers want to form a union.
Microsoft’s legally binding agreement specifically applied to Activision Blizzard employees after the merger was completed. But it also reflects Microsoft’s broader unionization principles, which are still rare in the tech and gaming industries.
Dayberry said Microsoft’s promise of neutrality reassured workers that there would be no “retaliation or union busting that didn’t happen.”
“They’ve definitely kept their word this whole time,” CWA spokeswoman Beth Allen said. “It’s pretty important. Microsoft is an exception in how tech companies behave.”
Unionized workers are based in Hunt Valley and Rockville, Maryland, as well as the Texas cities of Austin and Dallas.
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