Dragon Age 4 Testers Win Historic Union Vote

This morning, quality assurance testers on Dragon Age: Dreadwolf unanimously voted to form Canada’s first video game labor union. They filed the motion on April 20, and the election concluded 16-0 in favor of unionizing. This came after the devs mounted an organized campaign focused on bad pay and a troubling return-to-office mandate.

The testers are employed through the contracting company Keywords Studios, which has over 40 offices all over the world. These employees work at the Edmonton office, where they’ve provided support for BioWare games such as Mass Effect Legendary Edition, and the Star Wars: The Old Republic expansion Legacy of the Sith. They’re currently providing quality assurance testing for the recently revealed Dragon Age: Dreadwolf.

The union campaign started after Keywords Studios announced that the testers would be required to return to BioWare’s office starting on May 9. Testers do not receive paid sick time, despite Alberta’s 14-day quarantine requirement. Testers also wanted to raise the pay from the base of roughly $13 USD per hour. Keywords Studios eventually rescinded the back-to-office mandate, but the workers told Kotaku today that increasing pay and preventing mandatory return-to-office are still some of the main concerns they will be bargaining over.

According to an email that the QA testers sent out at noon, the union will begin bargaining with Keywords Studios bosses this week.

Save 94%

Offcloud Lifetime Subscription

Unlock everything
With Offcloud, you can unlock file-hosting and streaming sites, download securely from BitTorrent, access and fetch from Usenet/newsgroups, unlock all restrictions from Uploaded and Rapidgator, backup any video from YouTube, convert Soundcloud entries to MP3 files, remotely sync your files with the cloud, unlock all types of restrictions, speed up downloads and save bandwidth, stay completely anonymous & secure, convert the entire web to PDF, save online articles like Pocket or Evernote—and more!

Buy for $40 at StackSocial

“We are excited to move into bargaining with the employer and start towards a more equitable working situation,” they wrote. “We would like to thank the brave workers across North America who are fighting for a better workplace. We’re here in solidarity with you.”

The successful organizing vote follows the recent QA unionization victory at Raven Software, which works on the Call of Duty games. Quality assurance testers there are now able to negotiate with Activision Blizzard for better pay and working conditions. And after Microsoft announced it would voluntarily recognize new unions, it seems likely that the games labor movement will continue to build momentum.

According to Keywords Studios’ website, “Keywords Studios accept the vote of the 16 Edmonton staff who have chosen to unionize.”

A spokesperson said that the studio did not want to offer any further comment.