The CWA and Unionized Xbox Devs Have Been Fighting for Layoff Protections for Months, as Microsoft Drags its Feet on Negotiations: “The Uncertainty is Maddening”

Yesterday, with reports of mass layoffs at Xbox looming and set to happen late this week, the Communications Workers of America (CWA) hosted a press conference, where current employees at studios under Microsoft's gaming portfolio spoke out to make it clear they will be fighting these layoffs as much as possible. Though a report today from Kotaku, which spoke to CWA members who attended the conference and presented their own statements reveals yet again how Microsoft has been dragging its feet on negotiating with the unions, leaving developers in a "maddening" state of uncertainty.

Seeing Xbox and Microsoft drag their feet on negotiations is nothing new. ZeniMax Workers United QA was only able to finalize a contract after two years of negotiations, closing out the deal only after authorizing a strike because of Microsoft's delays. But what this report reveals is the lengths Xbox is going to in its efforts to keep its workers in the dark about what's happening.

It also shows how, as the unionized developers and CWA members pointed out in yesterday's press conference, these layoffs are anything but a 'reset,' as they are, in reality, Xbox leadership returning to a playbook that simply has not worked.

"We have rehired a lot of people who were laid off in previous layoffs," said Alison Veneto, senior editor at Blizzard. "So it's like, what was the point of those layoffs? I don't have an MBA, but paying someone severance and then rehiring them in the same job - I don't know. I'm not a business, I put pictures together for a living. But one of the big asks across Xbox Studios, is transferring people into open roles at other studios."

"They have all of these studios, you know, the roles are similar on various games. If you have the skill set, [why can't you] just apply at another studio or even apply at your own studio? Can we just move people into the open positions?"

The layoff protections listed in yesterday's press conference include developers at risk of being cut getting the opportunity to find a role elsewhere in the company before they lose their job. A solution that makes a lot of sense, if you ran your business in a way that valued the staff you hire and their talents.

Also, if that were the case, then you'd also be able to be forthcoming with your staff, rather than claim to know nothing about a string of layoff reports. The report adds that with last year's ZeniMax cuts, the union was only told "roughly an hour before the public announcement." When the ZeniMax union tried to get clarity on what's happening with the cuts reported to occur this week, during a bargaining session, Microsoft's lawyers "claimed to know nothing about it, and the others in the room (HR, other lawyers, and studio leadership) offered nothing further," the report reads.

Microsoft also recently rejected a layoff proposal made by the CWA, and even as more reports appeared, continued to keep the unions who are trying to bargain and reach contracts with Xbox, in the dark.

"We understand that businesses have to business," said Veneto, "but the uncertainty is maddening. We just want to know that they're making a real effort to keep our jobs and to acknowledge that we are people with hopes and dreams and kids and mortgages, and to treat us with compassion. And that if layoffs happen, we know what is happening, right? We have a contract. We know we have recall rights. We know they're going to try to transfer us. I know what my severance is going to be. Even just me planning the next five years of my life...we can't be certain we're always going to have these jobs, but we can be certain of what would happen if they went away."

It's unfortunate that Xbox and Microsoft leadership continue to reach for strategies that put their workers, the people who actually create the things that provide value to the company, dead last. Veteran analyst Joost van Dreunen made it clear in his latest newsletter that these kinds of mass cuts will only serve to help Xbox and any other major firms going down this route fall behind the eight-ball on the industry's next big innovations.

The latest reports point to "at least five" studios getting shuttered, with those studios speculated to be Double Fine, Ninja Theory, Compulsion Games, Undead Labs, and Arkane Lyon. Anyone who has paid a lick of attention to the video game industry for the last forty years knows just how devastating closing those studios would be to the institutional knowledge Xbox can currently boast with those developers on staff. They'd know that shuttering these studios would be like giving up your top-six forwards for future considerations.

You lose so much and gain nothing but short-term bumps on your quarterly reports, and the illusion that you've bought yourself time to make up for the failures that brought you to those layoffs in the first place. And things are only poised to get worse if Xbox and Microsoft leadership can't begin to seriously consider options that work with their developers, those who are and aren't unionized, for a better future.

"Devs aren't asking for multi-million dollar salaries, just protections that allow them to focus on making great games," said Sherveen Uduwana, treasurer for the United Video Game Workers at yesterday's press conference. "We're asking Xbox to treat layoffs as the failure of leadership they are."

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