CWA/ZeniMax QA Effects Bargaining Update

On July 22, 2026, the CWA QA ZeniMax Bargaining Team reported on effects bargaining:

Dear fellow CWA members,

Your CWA bargaining committee met virtually today for ZeniMax QA Effects Bargaining. A little over a year to the day, Microsoft/ZeniMax laid off 105 QA workers in 2025. In 2026, that number is 124.

On today’s call, the CWA bargaining committee and members let it be known how the impacts of the Microsoft/ZeniMax layoff decision affect them. The Company bargaining committee consisted of Behnaz Mansouri; Tom Pagliarulo and Chelsea Wilson. The CWA bargaining committee consists of Autumn Mitchell; Dylan Burton; James Alexander; Rhyanna Eichner; Latasha Carpenter-Local 2108 VP; Alex Doblado-Local 6215 VP; Brandon Simmons; Chase Odle; Mike Somers and Lisa Fazzini from CWA. The committee was also joined by members Marius Cholera; Naomi Green; Juniper Dowell; Page Branson and Zach Lyon.

Each member gave a powerful impact statement. While Company leadership has described this as a “difficult” decision, that word falls on deaf ears for QA who have repeatedly borne the consequences of bad management decisions. And the impact statements reflected that.

The remainder of the session consisted of reviewing the request for information where the Company chair insisted that the contract does not dictate them having to provide relevant information. The whole point and purpose of a request for information is to provide relevant information separate from the contract. CWA/QA committee brought up the issue of losing access to game tokens and quoted language in the contract that supports having at least 48 hours notice to access resources before it is restricted.

In addition, topics on not exercising a Voluntary Separation Plan (VSP) before a reduction in force and payout of bonuses were discussed.

Later that evening, the Union received a proposal from ZeniMax that addressed some of the Union concerns raised during the session. The Union is currently reviewing the proposal and will be reaching out, as needed, to members we may need additional information from.

We meet again on Thursday, July 30th.

Your bargaining committee,

Autumn Mitchell-L.2108
Rhyanna Eichner-L. 2100
Dylan Burton-L. 6215
James Alexander-L.2108
LaTasha Carpenter-VP L.2108
Alex Doblado-VP L. 6215
Brandon Simmons-D2-13 Staff Rep.
Chase Odle-D6 Staff Rep.
Lisa Fazzini-CWA Bargaining Chair