According to communicated of the union Communications Workers of Americathe creation of the trade union ZeniMax Workers United was voted by qualified majority by the employees. The latter are more precisely quality assurance testers, the discipline generally the least valued among the many video game professions. “We have before us the opportunity to make big changes and bring fairness to the video game industry. We want to put an end to sudden periods of crunch, unfair wages and lack of promotion opportunities within the company. Our union will push for truly competitive wages, better communication between management and workers, a clear path for those who want to advance in their careers, and more“, commented Victoria Banos, quality assurance tester at Hunt Valley.
Happy timing from Microsoft
“We look forward to engaging in good faith negotiations towards a collective agreement“, a Microsoft representative told the site Axios. The posture of Microsoft which, like all American companies in the sector, has virtually no experience with the notion of trade unionism, is undoubtedly not completely innocent in the context of the proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard. for a record $69 billion. We remember that Activision Blizzard had refused to recognize the union project of the testers of Raven Software, the studio of Call of Duty: Warzone.
By being more receptive to the desire of Bethesda employees to fight for better working conditions, Microsoft can only score points with the authorities who are still reluctant to give it the green light, starting with the Federal Trade Commission in the United States and the Competition and Markets Authority the UK. Microsoft had in fact entered into a neutrality pact with the union Communication Workers of America, which supports most efforts in the video game industry. The idea was that Microsoft would not oppose unionization attempts, in exchange for which the union would support its plan to acquire Activision Blizzard.
“When ZeniMax employees announced they were organizing a union in December, Microsoft agreed to remain neutral and allow workers to make their own decision about joining the union. The company quickly recognized ZeniMax Workers United after a neutral third party confirmed that a majority of workers were in favor of joining the union“, explains the statement of the union.ZeniMax Workers United is the first Microsoft studio to gain union representation, and the largest group of union-represented quality assurance testers at a US game studio.“
