More than 800 Communications Workers of America (CWA) Members, Video Game Workers, Community Organizations and local Labor Allies recently held coordinated Save Our Devs rallies in the U.S. and Canada to call out layoffs and corporate greed across the industry and to demand fair first contracts across Microsoft’s Gaming Studios.

The rallies were made possible by CWA Locals 1118, 2100, 2108, 6215, 7250, 9433 and 9510 in the U.S. and CWA-SCA Local 30111 in Canada.

Last month, Microsoft’s Gaming Division - now rebranded as XBOX - announced 3,200 planned job reductions across XBOX, with the first phase of layoffs scheduled to impact 1,600 XBOX Workers, including hundreds of Union Members, in early September.

CWA represents nearly 4,000 Video Game Workers at XBOX throughout the U.S. and Canada.

As a result, CWA Members and gamers alike have engaged in unprecedented resistance in response to Microsoft’s unilateral actions.

Last month, after a press conference where XBOX Workers demanded layoff protections, more than 500 Workers and their allies rallied at studio locations across the U.S. and Canada.

XBOX fans also posted on Microsoft’s official fan feedback website to call out the layoffs, garnering more than 4,000 upvotes and nearly 900 comments on the XBOX Player Voice forum.

In July, CWA filed Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) Charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), alleging several Labor Law violations that require the employer to engage in decisional bargaining over discretionary layoffs.

ZeniMax Senior User Research and CWA Local 6215 Member Elisabeth Whyte, who was impacted by July’s layoffs, said: “Like the people I read about in history books, I’m here to fight for fair contracts for all the Unionized Workers in the Video Game Industry. I’m here to fight for all the Game Workers across an industry that has decided to put profits ahead of the Workers ‘who are the heart and soul of games.’ My hope is the Gaming Industry will one day return to a model that respects Game Workers, provides fair compensation, and doesn’t treat a game launch as an opportunity to downsize or close studios.”

For More On This Labor News Story, Go To: Union Video Game Workers Fight for Rights Amidst Xbox Layoffs | Communications Workers of America

CWA-Provided Photo.