Microsoft announced mass layoffs at XBOX in July, planning to let go more than 3,200 workers and shutter some XBOX gaming studios, with a first wave of layoffs in early September. With hundreds of union video game developers impacted by these layoffs, workers and their union, Campaign to Organize Digital Employees-Communications Workers of America (CODE-CWA), are staging joint rallies in cities across the United States and Canada to call out layoffs and corporate greed in the industry, and to demand fair first contracts across Microsoft’s gaming studios.
Tuesday’s rallies are the latest escalation in workers’ and fans’ fight for layoff protections and accountability from Microsoft executives. Rallies are planned in California, Maryland, Minnesota, New York, Texas, and Montreal. In the Seattle area, video game developers and allies will rally at Microsoft’s Redmond campus.
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