No matter what happens next, unionizing at ZeniMax worked

‘Every single one of us deserves a say in what the future of the industry looks like’

Autumn Mitchell is a QA Tester at ZeniMax Media and is a member of ZeniMax Workers United of the Communications Workers of America (ZWU-CWA). She is currently an elected member of the union’s bargaining committee, which is negotiating the terms of their first contract with the company.

On Thursday morning, before my first sip of coffee, the alerts started flooding my phone. My employer, Microsoft, was laying off 1,900 workers and it was all over the news. I work at the video game company ZeniMax, which was acquired in 2021 by Microsoft, so I felt a familiar, sickening feeling start to take hold.

But I can’t say it came as a surprise. So many people in our industry have lost their jobs this way recently. In 2023, at least 6,500 video game workers were laid off (unofficial trackers have that number much higher). And even before this latest round, 2024 hadn’t shown any sign of improvement.

The video game industry is huge. It was bigger than the movie and music industries combined following the 2020 pandemic surge, and while it has dropped a bit since then, it remains a multibillion-dollar industry. However, it’s still relatively young and lacks a history of successful worker organizing.

This is what allowed Hollywood writers and actors to take on streaming services and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) last summer and get most of what they bargained for. Video games are subject to many of the same pressures — the waves of industry consolidation and disruption, accelerating release schedules, and working conditions like crunch periods that can force up to 100-hour weeks along with toxic workplaces, all of which seem tailored to destroy workers. Similar to the concerns of entertainment workers, AI is a growing concern, and while it isn’t widespread yet, the more companies invest, the more we worry.

Image: Bethesda Game Studios/Bethesda Softworks

Not very long ago, I was one of the thousands of video game workers feeling gnawed on by this competitive, volatile industry. It felt like things were quickly becoming unsustainable. But something happened. During this round of layoffs, I felt something in addition to the familiar sadness and dread: I felt empowered.

When I first joined ZeniMax in 2022 as a part-time QA contractor, it was immediately apparent that there were cultural and systemic issues in the department and in the industry. The pay was scandalously low, and there were no clear pathways to professional development or promotion.

Eventually, I became a full-time employee, and I wasn’t shy about my belief that we should form a union. One day I mentioned it to a co-worker, who said, “Let me send you a private message.” In that message, she explained that a group of our co-workers had already been organizing for over a year — sharing grievances about company leadership, dwindling bonuses, and losing good people to bad policies — over tabletop game gatherings in a colleague’s basement and rallying together to do something about it.

Learning that I wasn’t alone was incredibly encouraging, but we were afraid. We didn’t know how the company might respond if we went public with our intention to form a union. We’d seen workers at other companies face demoralizing alleged union-busting campaigns. When I joined up with the effort, my co-workers were looking for a union that could help provide the structure and know-how to overcome that kind of opposition. We reached out to union representatives and eventually decided on Communications Workers of America (CWA) because it was most aligned with what we wanted, knew exactly what we were up against, and had proven strategies for success. We were especially inspired by the example of QA testers at Raven Software, who got to the finish line with CWA’s help.

It wasn’t long after we chose the organization that Microsoft signed a labor neutrality agreement with the CWA. So, at least in theory, we knew that it was possible to form a union without encountering the kind of belligerent union-busting we’d heard of at other companies. Still, no Microsoft workers had ever done this. The company had committed to following the law, but would it find other ways to make our lives miserable? We were a small group of low-paid workers in a small city making demands of a giant multinational corporation. And we were blazing a new trail.

We felt sure that if we did nothing, then nothing would change. Things might even get worse, and the only way forward was standing together and standing up for one another.

The author (left) with Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO. Photo courtesy of Autumn Mitchell

And we won! Microsoft and our managers at ZeniMax stayed out of it and let us decide for ourselves whether or not we wanted to have a union. That shouldn’t be unusual, but it is. Now we are bargaining our first contract and making good headway. Already, we’ve gotten ZeniMax to agree to include our subcontractor colleagues in our union and won the right to negotiate the way AI is incorporated into our work. And all of us have been spared during the last two rounds of layoffs. While it’s unclear if that’s due entirely to our organizing, our union status likely saved us.

We have something more certain than luck, something more powerful than hope: We have a union.

My heart breaks for my co-workers who have been impacted by these layoffs. If you work in video games and are feeling the fear today, it’s time to start having conversations with your co-workers about it. This might seem small and trivial, but they’ll build the foundation of a video game industry where workers have the power to protect one another from the worst impulses of their employers.

Every single one of us deserves a say in what the future of the industry looks like. The people who have poured their energy, skills, and time into creating incredible, immersive experiences that generate billions in corporate revenue deserve dignity and respect.

If you have ever once thought about how you and your colleagues could have more input at work, look up a union online and talk to people who are experienced in building unions — see if it’s a solution that can work for you and your co-workers. CWA continues to support us as we bargain our first collective contract. It’s working for us, and we continue to engage our employer on solutions to the issues at our jobs.

If you’re a company with employees organizing their labor, do the right thing and allow them to exercise that right without interference. Your employees are the people bringing you ideas and solutions to grow your business every day. Return that energy by respecting their rights. Who knows? You may be surprised at what you learn about your business at the negotiating table.