Feed: Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics
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Title: ZeniMax QA workers win tentative union contract with Microsoft

Date: Fri, 30 May 2025 19:42:04 +0000
Link: https://www.engadget.com/gaming/zenimax-qa-wo...

After two years of negotiating, ZeniMax Workers United-CWA, the union
representing quality assurance workers at ZeniMax Media, has reached a
tentative union contract with Microsoft, according to the Communication
Workers of America. The union originally formed in 2023 and was immediately
recognized by Microsoft, which made its commitment to stay neutral towards
union organizing at ZeniMax official in 2024.

The new contract will cover over 300 ZeniMax employees and includes
"substantial across-the-board wage increases as well as new minimum salaries
for workers," the CWA says. The contract also includes language protecting
workers from the impacts of AI and "a crediting policy that clearly
acknowledges the QA workersΓÇÖ contributions to the video games they help
create."

"Video games have been the revenue titan of the entire entertainment industry
for years, and the workers who develop these games are too often exploited
for their passion and creativity," Jessee Leese, a QA tester and ZeniMax
Workers United-CWA bargaining committee member shared in the CWA
announcement. "Our first contract is an invitation for video game
professionals everywhere to take action. We're the ones who make these games,
and we'll be the ones to set new standards for fair treatment."

The new contract is considered "tentative" until union members ratify it, but
because existing contracts often act as a reference in ongoing negotiations,
the agreements ZeniMax workers secured will likely serve as a standard for
other unions going forward. ZeniMax QA testers aren't the only video game
union at Microsoft ΓÇö QA workers at Raven Software, QA workers at
Activision, workers at ZeniMax Online Studios and the development team behind
Overwatch are all still in active negotiations with the company.

Outside of Microsoft, the CWA also announced the United Game Workers-CWA
union at this year's GDC, as a another option for representation. United Game
Workers-CWA is a direct-join union, a labor organization that all workers in
an industry can participate in without needing legal recognition from an
employer. The idea is that currently employed workers, anyone who's been laid
off and freelancers can all still wield power together, even without a
potential contract hanging in the balance.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at
https://www.engadget.com/gaming/zenimax-qa-wo...
contract-with-microsoft-194204789.html?src=rss

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