It’s a big day for the labour movement in the games industry, as 241 Bethesda staffers have formed a union.
Yesterday evening, Bethesda Game Studios workers announced it had formed a union under the Communication Workers of America (CWA), making it the first studio to fully do so since being acquired by Microsoft. Bethesda Montreal filed for unionisation last month, and QA workers at Zenimax, Bethesda’s parent company, did the same in 2023, but with the Dallas, Rockville, and Austin sites forming this union, the entirety of US-based Bethesda studios have now unionised. It’s also the first “wall-to-wall” union at a Microsoft video game studio, as of the 241 workers that have unionised, there are members “including artists, engineers, programmers and designers have either signed a union authorization card or indicated that they wanted union representation.”
In a statement, senior system designer and member of the CWA Mandi Parker said, “We are so excited to announce our union at Bethesda Game Studio and join the movement sweeping across the video game industry. It is clear that every worker can benefit from bringing democracy into the workplace and securing a protected voice on the job. We’re thrilled to get down to brass tacks and win a fair contract, proving that our unity is a source of real power to positively shape our working conditions, our lives, and the company as a whole.”
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