Hundreds of unionized workers at the Elder Scrolls and Fallout video game firm ZeniMax Media have voted to authorize a strike, marking an escalation in tensions with the company after nearly two years of contract negotiations.
More than 94 percent of quality assurance (QA) testers represented by Communications Workers of America Locals supported a work stoppage in a vote that took place on March 18. In prepared statements, ZeniMax workers conveyed that they were applying pressure in order to accelerate negotiations and address key issues like wages and outsourcing.
“We’re not afraid to use our union power to ensure that we can keep making great games,” senior QA tester Skylar Hinnant stated. “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.”
Microsoft finalized its acquisition of ZeniMax in 2021. In a statement, a Microsoft spokesperson said there has been “substantial progress” in negotiations. “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,” the spokesperson added.
Three Communications Workers of America Locals represent around 300 workers at ZeniMax sites in Hunt Valley and Rockville, Maryland and Austin and Dallas, Texas. Union negotiators have pushed to raise wages, expand possibilities for remote work and protect against the outsourcing of QA work.
“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,” associate QA tester Aubrey Litchfield said.
Microsoft has offered compensation increases and provisions “in alignment to the company’s hybrid model of 3 days in office,” a company spokesperson countered.
Though the ZeniMax union and Microsoft began their relationship on apparently cordial terms — the tech giant voluntarily recognized the group in 2023 as part of an overall open stance to organizing — pressure has ratcheted up as the parties have hashed out their first union agreement.
The CWA alleges that the company has been replacing internal QA contractors with outside workers without notifying the union. The labor group filed an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board in October 2024 over the alleged outsourcing in a case that has not yet been decided.
And in late 2024, two CWA Locals staged a one-day walkout to protest the pace of negotiations and to emphasize their top bargaining issues.
“None of us wishes it had come to this, but if Microsoft and ZeniMax continue to demonstrate at the bargaining table that they’re unwilling to pay us fair wages for the value our labor provides to our games, we’ll be showing them just how valuable our labor is,” said senior QA tester Zachary Armstrong.