US communications workers, unions, representing QA Testers in Zenmex, have announced today that it has reached a temporary agreement on the labor agreement with Microsoft. If it is implemented, this agreement will be one of the first people to be implemented in the big AAA game publisher.
Last month, the union voted in favor of a strike in response to challenges to the deal negotiations. The deal will refrain from strike. A Press releaseCWA said the unanimous agreement would increase the reservations of Zenimax employees significantly and increase salaries to the entire board. It will also implement AI -use guidelines, limiting “discretion dismissal”, and will create a process to ensure that QA testers receive properly credit in video games in which they contribute.
The QA testing has been a hotspot of alliance efforts in the sports industry, some of which have been subjected to union busting efforts. In Zenimex, the QA Tests Union represents close to 300 employees and has been fighting for many years for the deal. In response to the deal, Zenmex’s QA Tester and Union representative Liz said, “Video games have been the titan of the entire entertainment industry for years, and workers who make these games are often exploited for their passion and creativity.
In early 2023, Zenimx employees formed the Zenimax Workers United CWA, which is a coalition of CWA units involved in the company, which was possible under a neutral agreement with Microsoft’s Union Actism. Since then, the Microsoft has extended the alliance to add more teams. Earlier in May, for example, the Over Watch 2 team in Blazard announced that it had fully united. Microsoft now has more than 2,000 alliance employees.
This agreement still needs to complete several obstacles before fully implementing. Now that the two sides have temporarily agreed, the union will have a series of clarification sessions for its members to know about its provisions. Then, at the end of June, CWA expects to vote for its members.
Discovery: The author of this article is a member of the CWA by the Graduate Student Union.
