US and Canadian Game Worker Unions File Unfair Labor Practice Charges Against Microsoft Over Xbox Layoffs

Overview

Two of the largest unions representing video game workers have turned Microsoft’s Xbox layoffs into a legal fight. The Communications Workers of America (CWA) in the United States and CWA Canada jointly filed unfair labor practice charges against Microsoft on July 15, accusing the company of bargaining in bad faith and pushing through mass firings without meeting its legal obligations to organized workers, according to Game Developer. The charges follow Microsoft’s confirmation earlier this month of roughly 3,200 job cuts across its gaming division.

What We Know

• The filing. CWA and CWA Canada filed the charges with the National Labor Relations Board on July 15, Game Developer reported. Engadget reported the same date for the joint action.
• The allegations. The unions say Microsoft failed to provide required information, bargained in bad faith, made unilateral changes to workers’ contracts, and took “coercive actions,” and that it dismissed staff without the notice or negotiation the law requires while collective bargaining was still under way, according to Game Developer. Central to the complaint is the claim that Microsoft never engaged in “decisional bargaining” — negotiating over the decision to lay workers off before carrying it out, Game Developer reported.
• The union’s core argument. CWA Canada President Carmel Smyth said an employer cannot unilaterally change working conditions while it is still negotiating with the union, per Game Developer.
• The scale. Microsoft’s early-July announcement set out about 1,600 immediate layoffs with roughly 1,600 more planned for the coming fiscal year, Engadget reported — around 3,200 roles across the gaming division in all, per Game Developer. The charges name Microsoft subsidiaries including Activision, Blizzard, King, Mojang, Xbox Game Studios and ZeniMax, the parent of Arkane, Bethesda, id Software, MachineGames and ZeniMax Online, according to Engadget.

The ‘Save Our Devs’ Rally

The legal filings landed alongside in-person protests. On July 15, members of OneBGS — the CWA-affiliated Bethesda Game Studios union — held a “Save Our Devs” rally outside ZeniMax and Bethesda offices in Rockville, Maryland; Austin, Texas; and Montreal, Video Games Chronicle reported. The union said 440 of its members were cut across Bethesda and ZeniMax, including about 100 at Doom studio id Software and more than 200 at Elder Scrolls Online studio ZeniMax Online, per Video Games Chronicle. Kotaku, which also counted Dallas among the rally sites, reported that Maryland alone lost more than 350 jobs. The union used the rally to press demands including preferential transfers to open Microsoft roles, stronger severance with extended healthcare, and recall rights for future hiring, according to Video Games Chronicle.

What We Don’t Know

• How the roughly 1,600 further reductions planned for the coming fiscal year will be distributed; Engadget reported the second wave but not its breakdown.
• The outcome of the charges. The reports reviewed for this article did not include a response from Microsoft to the specific allegations.

Analysis

The charges turn a wave of studio organizing into a legal test of what Microsoft owed its workers before cutting them. The company’s gaming workforce has unionized rapidly: Double Fine employees became the fourteenth Microsoft gaming studio to file for a union in May, organizing with the same CWA now pressing the charges. That density is what lets the unions argue Microsoft was obligated to bargain over the layoff decision rather than simply announce it. The restructure remains the defining move of Xbox CEO Asha Sharma’s tenure, which began in February after Phil Spencer’s retirement, and it has now escalated into a formal labor-board fight.