The members of the Zenimax workers union, which consists of more than 300 quality guarantee workers in Zenimax studies, has “overwhelmingly” voted to authorize union leadership to request a strike if a resolution is not reached after two years of contractual negotiations without success with Microsoft.
Zenimax World United, who is part of the communications workers of America (CWA), became the first union to be voluntarily recognized by Microsoft in 2023. At that time, the members, who have worked in Fallout, Starfield and Doom of the company.
But two years later, Zenimax World United says that it is still successfully negotiating a first contract. According to the union, its negotiation committee has so far not managed to reach an agreement with Microsoft on “better salaries, improvements in the workplace and key concerns, including the lack of remote work options and the replacement of the Company of Internal Quality Guarantee Labor with subcontracted labor without notifying the union.”
Last December, union members in Maryland and Texas sink one day in the midst of concerns about the subcontracting of Microsoft and their policies to return to the office, and the CWA also presented a charge of unfair labor practice against Microsoft for subcontracting work unilaterally. However, this action could potentially climb more than 94 percent of the members of Zenimax United workers have voted to authorize union leadership to request a strike if the contract negotiations do not reach a resolution.
“Passing a habitable salary to its employees as a multi -million dollar company is the least they could be doing,” said the member of the associated union and tester of QA, Aubrey Litchfield, in a statement that meets in today’s news. “However, when they are addressed in the negotiation table, Microsoft acts as if we were asking too much. Our internal contractors have been working on minimum wages without benefits, including the paid disease time. Workers choose not to start families due to the uncertainty of finance. We have released multiple titles while we work completely remote. When will it be enough?”
“Insufficient and expensive payments [return-to-office] The initiatives have caused many of us to put our lives in pause, “member of the Union and senior tester of Quality Control Zachary Armstrong added:” Because our income does not coincide even with the growing cost of living in the cities where Zenimax insists that we live and work to maintain employment … If Microsoft and Zenimax continue to demonstrate in the negotiation table that they are not in child We the righteous for our laboration to be the value of our laboration to our laboration to our laboration to our games, which only shows us to the games, only what will only exhibit them. is.”
In a statement provided to the edge in response to today’s announcement, Microsoft spokesman, Delaney Simmons, insisted that the company was “deeply committed to reaching a fair and equitable resolution that recognizes the contributions of the equipment.” Simmons also said that a “substantial progress” had been made during the negotiations, and that “tentative agreements [had been reached] About most of the topics on the table. ”
“We have presented a package proposal that we believe is fair,” Simmons continued. “If it is accepted, it would result in immediate increases in compensation, even more robust benefits and is aligned with the hybrid model of the three -day company in office. We hope to continue this progress during the negotiations.”
Zenimax World United is only one of an increasing number of successful video game unions in recent years, with workers such as Activision, Blizzard and Sega now represented by unions. In addition, last month, the CWA will announce United video game workers throughout the industry, a direct union open to all workers in the independent or full -time video game industry in the United States or Canada.
