Microsoft and video game workers union reach preliminary agreement on labor contracts

The United States' communications workers, a union of QA testers representing Zenimax's QA testers, announced today that it has reached a preliminary agreement to sign a labor contract with Microsoft. If implemented, the contract would be one of the earliest contracts to come into force at one of the major AAA game publishers.

Last month, the union Voting authorize strikes Respond to challenges in the contract negotiation process; the agreement will avoid strikes. exist Press releaseThe agreed contract will grant Zenimax employees a significant increase in protection and will raise wages across the board, the CWA shared. It will also implement guidelines on the use of AI, limiting “arbitrary dismissals” and create processes to ensure quality assurance testers are fully credited in the video games they contribute.

Quality assurance testing has always been a hot topic in union work in the gaming industry, some of which Has become an effort to destroy unions. At Zenimax, the QA Test Staff Union represents about 300 employees and fought for this contract for several years. In response to the agreement, Zenimax’s QA tester and union representative Jessee Leese said: “Video games have always been an income titan for the entire entertainment industry, and the workers who develop these games often leverage for their passion and creativity. For their organization and creativity, organizing unions, getting along with a collective voice and being able to help a collective voice, allowing workers to become workers’ automatic, we can all be automated.

In early 2023, Zenimax employees created Zenimax Workers United-CWA, a consortium of CWA embedded in the company Microsoft is consistent with the neutrality of union activism. Since then, unions have expanded at Microsoft to include more teams. For example, in early May, Blizzard's Overwatch 2 team announced that it has been fully united. Microsoft now has more than 2,000 union employees.

The contract still needs to be completed several obstacles before it can be fully implemented. Since both sides temporarily agree, the alliance will hold a series of interpretation meetings to understand its provisions. Then, in late June, the CWA expects its members to vote for approval.

Disclosure: The author of this article is a CWA member of the Graduate Union.