Summary
Bethesdaworkers have unionised, with 241 developers organising in total. The union is said to have been recognised byMicrosoft, making it the first time in the company’s history that one of its studios has fully unionised across departments.
As per astatementfrom the Communications Workers of America, the union represents workers from across the studio, including “artists, engineers, programmers and designers”. The developers in Bethesda’s studios in Dallas, Rockville, and Austin now join Bethesda Montreal, which filed for unionisation last month.
241 Bethesda Workers Have Unionised
“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,” says Johnny Brown from the CWA. “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.”
Microsoft has not made a public statement on the union at the time of publication. However, the CWA says that the company has recognised the union.
This is not the first time that developers who work on Bethesda games have organised. Previously,ZeniMax QA workers unionised in January 2023. Bethesda Montreal alsofiled for union recognitionlast month.
This is also not the first time that a Microsoft-owned studio has found itself at the centre of discussions around unionisation efforts in the gaming industry.Activision Blizzardworkers had started organising before the Microsoft acquisition, but this was something that the company inherited once the merger went through. At the time,the CWA supported the acquisition, arguing that Activision Blizzard did not “respect its workers' right to freely and fairly organise a union”.
Bethesda
Bethesda has been responsible for many great games in its four decades of history, From Bethesda Game Studios' The Elder Scrolls and Fallout series to Bethesda Softworks-published titles like Dishonored and Doom, you’re sure to have experienced at least one of its games.
