Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) has agreed to recognise its first labor union in the US following a vote by workers at its ZeniMax Studios.
Employees at the video game production company owned by Nasdaq-listed Microsoft voted in a “supermajority” according to the Communications Workers of America (CWA) Union.
ZeniMax, which is behind popular games The Elder Scrolls and Fallout, will also boast the largest group of union-represented quality assurance testers at any US game studio.
Roughly, the union will represent 300 quality assurance workers at offices in Maryland and Texas.
Quality assurance workers across ZeniMax had been organising for months, first signing union authorisation cards in November and holding votes in December.
"This is an empowering victory that allows us to protect ourselves and each other in a way we never could without a union,” said Skylar Hinnant, senior QA tester II, Rockville in a statement from the CWA.
“Microsoft has lived up to its commitment to its workers and let them decide for themselves whether they want a union,” added CWA president Chris Shelton. “Other video games and tech giants have made a conscious choice to attack, undermine, and demoralize their own employees when they join together to form a union."