Unionized quality assurance testers at video game holding company ZeniMax announced Friday that they have reached a tentative contract agreement with Microsoft, which acquired ZeniMax in 2021.
This represents Microsoft’s first union contract in the United States. It’s been a little over two years since approximately 300 QA testers announced that they were unionizing through the Communications Workers of America, and they said they’ve been negotiating with Microsoft ever since.
Bloomberg reports that the contract terms include an across-the-board, 13.5% pay raise on July 1. The contract also incorporates an already-announced agreement around the use of AI. Union members are scheduled to vote on ratifying the contract on June 20.
In a statement, QA tester and union bargaining committee member Page Branson called this “a monumental victory for all current video game workers and for those that come after.”
While ZeniMax’s QA workers were the first to unionize at Microsoft, other teams have followed suit, and the CWA said it now counts more than 2,000 Microsoft video game workers as members.
