ZeniMax Workers Union Vote to Authorize Strike against Microsoft

ZeniMax Workers United union, which consists of over 300 workers at Zenimax Studios, voted in overwhelming majority to authorize a strike against Microsoft in case contract negotiations are unsuccessful – 94 percent of workers in ZeniMax Workers United voted in favor of strike authorization. The information was published by the Communications Workers of America (CWA) union. 

This does not mean ZeniMax Workers United are currently striking, but instead indicates their readiness to strike if contract negotiations, which have been ongoing for two years, do not go their way.

According to the union, they have thus far failed to negotiate an agreement with Microsoft over “better wages, workplace improvements, and key concerns, including a lack of remote work options and the company’s replacement of in-house quality assurance work with outsourced labour without notifying the union.”

“Underpayment and costly RTO initiatives have caused many of us to put our lives on pause because our income does not match even the rising cost of living in the cities where ZeniMax insists we live and work to maintain employment,” said ZeniMax Workers United-CWA Local 6215 Member and Senior QA Tester Zachary Armstrong. 

“None of us wishes it had come to this, but if Microsoft and ZeniMax continue to demonstrate at the bargaining table that they’re unwilling to pay us fair wages for the value our labor provides to our games, we’ll be showing them just how valuable our labor is.”

ZeniMax Workers United union is a union formed under Zenimax Studios. They formed in January of 2023, representing the first video game studio union at Microsoft. As for Zenimax Studios, they most notably developed The Elder Scrolls Online.