Hundreds of Bethesda video game workers, who work on titles like Fallout 76 and Elder Scrolls, are going on strike across the country. Workers in Maryland and Texas are walking off the job, claiming that the company has failed to address their remote work concerns at the bargaining table, and has begun outsourcing quality assurance work without the union’s agreement.
Bethesda’s ZeniMax, which Microsoft bought in 2021 for $7.5 billion, has been home to the nation’s largest video games union, starting in January 2023 and attracting more than 300 quality assurance workers. While the union has been reluctant to share bargaining updates and said that Microsoft has made progress with it on bargaining, it also said the one-day strike was a necessary step forward, as its requests had gone unanswered. The union filed an unfair labor complaint against ZeniMax in October. Microsoft and ZeniMax did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
“I’m excited. I’m really looking forward to tomorrow. I think it’s going to be a fun event,” Rhyanna Eichner, quality assurance test lead, who helps supervise employees who test Bethesda games for bugs, among other tasks, tells Inverse, a day before the strike. “I know that sounds weird, but we’re all really looking forward to coming together and and spending time together. Everybody understands that this needs to happen. This is what needs to be done to move on. We’re all just kind of ready for it.”
Hundreds of Bethesda video game workers, who work on titles like Elder Scrolls, are going on strike across the country.
Bethesda Games Studios
The union is looking to limit the percentage of quality assurance testers the company outsources in comparison to the number of full-time workers present in its bargaining committee. It would not share details on where Microsoft has chosen to outsource labor to.
The union is also seeking a more flexible remote work policy. ZeniMax workers are currently required to go to the office twice a week, and many, the union says, are being denied their remote work requests. Eichner says that the company has repeatedly ignored the union’s remote work proposal.
“They have continually given us their first proposal again and again, and it’s become obvious that our different mobilization tactics have not worked,” Eichner says.
Juniper Dowell, a senior quality assurance tester at Rockville, Maryland, says that several testers would be forced to move or find a new job if they had to come into the office all five days a week because they were hired during recent remote work years under different circumstances.
“Striking isn’t fun or ideal, but there’s a satisfaction in having a concrete physical action we can do to fight for better work conditions,” Dowell says. “Hopefully, we can convince them to stop dragging their feet and meet us at the table.”
