Protesting video-game workers in Montreal denounce Microsoft's layoffs
Video-game workers in Montreal protested against Microsoft's recent layoffs of 1,600 employees in its Xbox division. The workers argue that the layoffs interfere with ongoing collective bargaining efforts and represent a loss of institutional knowledge.
Why it matters
The protest highlights the growing tension between tech giants and labor unions as the gaming industry faces widespread job cuts.
Dozens of video-game workers protested in Montreal on Wednesday to denounce Microsoft’s mass layoffs, alleging the tech giant interfered with collective bargaining when it let go of 1,600 workers in its Xbox gaming division last week.
They argue that because they are in negotiation for their first collective agreement, they should be protected under labour laws from management decisions that manipulate the bargaining process, union organizer and former game developer Simon Préfontaine explained at Wednesday’s protest.
“Microsoft has still made over $100 billion. The Xbox division — they haven’t even said that they’re losing money. They just said they haven’t reached the goals that they themselves set,” said Préfontaine, who was laid off last Monday after working nine years at Bethesda Game Studios, a formerly independent studio that was acquired by Microsoft in 2021. Some of his colleagues, he said, worked for Bethesda for nearly 30 years.
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