Microsoft Workers Form Largest Union in the U.S. Video Game Industry
Staff, 2023-01-03 15:35:00,
Microsoft’s first labor union in the U.S. was formed by a group of video game testers who work for the company’s subsidiary, ZeniMax Studios. The subsidiary consists of about 300 workers with the majority voting to join the union, making it the largest union in the video game industry in the U.S., according to the Communications Workers of America (CWA).
The video game testers pushed their unionization campaign prior to Microsoft’s takeover of the company, Senior Game Tester Wayne Dayberry told The Associated Press, adding that concerns in the workplace are prevalent at video game companies.
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“Throughout the industry, the quality assurance departments are treated poorly, paid very little, and treated as replaceable cogs,” Dayberry told the outlet. “There’s not a lot of dignity involved in it. That’s something we’re hoping to show people in the industry who are in like situations, that if we can do it, they can do it as well,” he said.
Those involved in the unionization efforts told The New York Times they hoped their efforts would change how Microsoft promotes workers and assigns responsibilities, as well as negotiate more flexible remote work policies, and increased pay.
Microsoft bought ZeniMax for $7.5 billion in 2021 giving it control over Bethesda Softworks and popular gaming franchises including The Elder Scrolls, Doom, and Fallout, and was aware of the unionization efforts from the video game…
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