Hidden launch of the game during awards ceremonies is frosty. But you know what’s cooler? Secretly launching a union. With many in the gaming industry opting for an evening of advertising and adulation, one group of American workers quietly managed to organize something of their own. As announced, Zenimax Online Studios employees have formed a union with 461 members on the Bluesky social networking site last night.
Members include engineers, artists, web developers and game designers. The union says most of these workers are based in Maryland, but others are scattered across the states in California, New York, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Texas.
“Together with the union, we look forward to working together to make improvements in the workplace,” they say, “including workplace safety, protection from artificial intelligence, better wages and benefits – in an industry we are so passionate about.”
The mention of “job security” raises obvious concerns given the huge number of layoffs in recent years, thousands of which have hit Microsoft-owned studios. The developers of The Elder Scrolls Online are Zenimax Online Studios, which is itself owned by Windows dealers.
Microsoft has officially recognized the union, but you should know that the labor agreement struck after last year’s huge acquisition of Activision Blizzard essentially means they’re doing this because they are obliged to do so. Which partly explains why Zenimax QA workers recently managed to unionize with perhaps more ease than at another company’s studio.
The Zenimax Online union, which was formed last night, was formed under the Communication Workers of America, the parent union that has been organizing workers across the states for several years. Earlier this year, this group of parents also helped another Elder Scrolls development team at Bethesda Game Studios form its own union of 241 employees.
“We’re working against some really powerful corporations,” a CWA organizer told Nic when he recently spoke to them about their organizing campaign. “The power imbalance is very obvious. So you try to organize in secret so that people are not completely derailed from exercising their rights before they even have a chance to understand them.”
I can’t think of a better sneak attack than to do it right after Geoff Keighly came on stage. Nice job.
