Bethesda Softworks QA union authorizes strike as negotiations with Microsoft continue

Update:

A Microsoft spokesperson provided a statement on the ongoing negotiations.

"Our quality assurance team is an integral part of our business and is key to our ability to deliver games our players will love. We respect the team's right to express their viewpoints and are deeply committed to reaching a fair and equitable resolution that acknowledges the teams' contributions. There has been substantial progress over the course of the negotiations, reaching tentative agreements on a majority of the topics at the table. We have presented a package proposal that we believe is fair -- if accepted it would result in immediate compensation increases, even more robust benefits and is in alignment to the company’s hybrid model of 3 days in office. We look forward to continuing this progress during negotiations.”

Original story:

ZeniMax Workers United, the union representing hundreds of ZeniMax Media quality assurance (QA) testers on Bethesda Softworks games, voted to authorize a strike as negotiations with Microsoft continue.

Over 94% of union members voted to authorize a call for a strike, per a press release shared on Tuesday. The union is continuing to bargain with Microsoft for better pay and remote work, as well as end to a lack of notification around outsourced work that goes around the union.

This comes as union members previously walked off the job for a day in protest of Microsoft not recognizing the demand for remote work options.

“We’re not afraid to use our union power to ensure that we can keep making great games,” said ZeniMax Workers United-CWA Local 2108 Member and senior QA tester Skylar Hinnant. “All of us want to be working. We hope that Microsoft will allow us to do so with dignity and fairness to all by securing a first contract with our union.”

QA testers at ZeniMax Media work on numerous games, including Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, as well as the upcoming DOOM: The Dark Ages.

"Despite being one of the world’s largest corporations, we’ve had to continuously fight for what should be bare minimum. Paying your employees a livable wage as a multi-trillion dollar company is the least they could be doing; however when addressed at the bargaining table, Microsoft acts as though we’re asking for too much,” said ZeniMax Workers United-CWA Local 2108 Member and associate QA tester Aubrey Litchfield.

Over the past couple of years, multiple unions have formed at various studios owned by Microsoft, including Bethesda Game Studios, the developer of massive games like The Elder Scrolls, Fallout, and Starfield. Another union recently formed at Activision User Research.

The Communication Workers of America (CWA) recently formed an industry-wide union for workers in the U.S. and Canada, which has garnered over 350 members so far.