Hundreds of ZeniMax Staffers Go on Strike

Posted by By our-little-miss-is-home November 13, 2024 149 Views 4 Min Read
Hundreds of ZeniMax Staffers Go on Strike

Key Takeaways

  • Hundreds of ZeniMax QA testers went on strike on November 13.
  • They are protesting Microsoft’s outsourcing practices and ZeniMax’s remote work policy.



Hundreds of ZeniMax Media quality assurance testers have gone on strike in protest of their employer’s remote work policy and Microsoft’s outsourcing practices. Their walkout is presently affecting ZeniMax studios spanning two states.

Microsoft acquired the Bethesda parent company in March 2021 as part of an $8.1 billion all-cash deal. Come January 2023, approximately 300 ZeniMax QA testers voted in favor of unionization, thus establishing the largest video game union in the U.S. This organization—ZeniMax Workers United, a branch of Communications Workers of America (CWA)—has been bargaining with Microsoft ever since.


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Their talks have recently reached a standstill, which the union is now looking to jolt with a strike. Its organized walkout kicked off at ZeniMax studios offices in Maryland and Texas on November 13, starting at 10am local time. The one-day protest will run for eight hours. In a statement given to Inverse a day ahead of the walkout, ZeniMax Online Studios Lead QA Tester Rhyanna Eichner expressed excitement about the strike, saying that everyone involved was “looking forward to coming together” and doing “what needs to be done to move on.”


ZeniMax QA Testers Want To Limit Outsourcing

As for what this act of moving on would actually entail, the striking staffers are demanding their employer to limit its outsourcing in the future. The QA testers claim the company opted to increase outsourcing without first bargaining with their union, which is something they find troubling amid all the layoffs and uncertainty that have been happening in recent times. Outsourcing has affected numerous Microsoft subsidiaries beyond just ZeniMax. E.g., Microsoft laid off most of Blizzard’s customer support team in early 2024, saying that it has decided to delegate its responsibilities to third parties.


ZeniMax Staffers Are Also Demanding Remote Work Policy Changes

The walkout is also partially motivated by the current state of ZeniMax’s remote work policy. As things stand right now, the company’s QA testers are required to work from the office twice per week. The union also claims that many of its members are being denied their requests to work from home. Its repeated proposals for a more lenient remote work policy have been ignored, the union says. The organization hopes that its one-day walkout will push ZeniMax and Microsoft to return to the bargaining table, hear their concerns, and begin making concessions to address them. “Hopefully, we can convince them to stop dragging their feet and meet us at the table,” Bethesda Softworks Senior QA Tester Juniper Dowell told Inverse.


Hopefully, we can convince them to stop dragging their feet and meet us at the table.

The November 13 walkout marks the first strike that ZeniMax Workers United organized since being established in 2023. ZeniMax subsidiary Bethesda Game Studios has also unionized in July 2024, but has not engaged in any strikes since its formation.

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