It’s official – Bethesda Game Studios is the first Microsoft studio to unionise, having joined force under the CWA banner fully. In recent news, it was confirmed that workers at Bethesda Game Studios’ Dallas, Rockville, and Austin studios had formed a ‘wall-to-wall’ union. Microsoft has formally recognised this union and presently, there’s no conflict.
Stronger Together
In a press release picked up by IGN, the move was celebrated by Mandi Parker, senior system designer at Bethesda Game Studios:
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.
More than two years ago, when Microsoft started to lock down the Activision acquisition, the tech titan stressed it wouldn’t stop AB from unionising post-purchase. It has made good on those promises by not standing in the way of Bethesda Game Studios’ unionisation efforts. BSG isn’t alone in this, though. Over time, team unionising in the games industry has become a trend, and it has been gathering pace since drama unfolded over the last year-and-a-half with layoffs and shutdowns occurring almost daily.
Johnny Brown, the president of CWA Local 2108, said:
In a groundbreaking achievement, the dedicated professionals at Bethesda Game Studios have demonstrated that, no matter your job title, you too can benefit from having a union. Through securing a protected voice on the job, workers are taking a step forward to negotiating better working conditions, helping to raise standards across the industry. We are incredibly proud to welcome these workers into our union and are confident that together, we will secure a brighter future for all workers in the video game industry.
As this trend gathers stream, we’re openly expecting to see more developers, publishers, and other industry workers get on board.
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Why not all studios?