Elder Scrolls Online Team Zenimax Online Studios Unionizes With 461 Founding Members Under Microsoft Regime

Another company within Microsoft has taken up the mantle of unionization, as Zenimax Online Studios has officially become the latest full-fledged, full-studio union at Microsoft. In addition, Microsoft has voluntarily recognized the studio, leading the way more directly to contract negotiations. 

Zenimax Online Studios United-CWA will have 461 members join its newly-ratified union, which was voted upon by in-person union cards or online remotely, according to a press release. Best known for its work on Elder Scrolls Online, ZOS has workers mostly in Maryland, but there are remote workers across the country as well. 

Now, negotiations must take place between its workers and leaders at ZOS and Microsoft for better conditions. 

“With a union, we are looking forward to collectively pushing for improvements to the workplace, including job security, protections against AI, better pay and benefits – in an industry that we’re so deeply passionate about,” the press release reads. 

Zenimax isn’t the first “bargaining unit,” per se, to unionize at Microsoft, as Raven Software’s QA unit won a union in 2022, making it the first union in Microsoft altogether. Zenimax’s single-player game dev group won a contract in 2023, about 600 Activision-Blizzard QA testers formed their own union earlier this year, and the team at Blizzard’s World of Warcraft unit announced its own union months later. 

These unionization efforts have been helped in large part by the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and specifically its Campaign to Organize Digital Employees (CODE) network that’s working to organize workers in the tech, gaming, and adjacent spaces. The initiative claims to have helped over 6,000 employees in these industries organize so far. 

The CWA’s work monitoring the Microsoft/Activision-Blizzard-King merger is also likely part of what paved the way to recent unionization efforts at the company. In 2023, Microsoft announced a “labor neutrality agreement” with the CWA agreeing not to interfere with union organization, and in return, the CWA would not interfere with the merger.  

This union is likely a welcome development at Microsoft and its Activision-Blizzard-King subsidiary, which has laid off quite literally thousands of employees in various waves of layoffs over the past few years, including 1,900 not long after the merger (which the companies swore wouldn't happen), 650 this past September, and about 400 more just weeks after that, too. While unions can’t stop layoffs, unions often work to create safety nets for those who are affected, including severance pay and continued benefits for extended periods.