Bethesda union confirms Xbox layoff protests: ‘We won’t quietly disappear’
OneBGS wants to make management “think twice before ever attempting something like this again”
Bethesda Game Studios union workers are planning to protest outside its four studio locations next week in response to the layoff of nearly 450 of its members across ZeniMax.
OneBGS, the CWA-affiliated Bethesda Game Studios union, is planning protests outside Bethesda offices located in Montreal, Rockville, Maryland, and Austin on July 15, it said.
The protests follow 440 union member job cuts across Bethesda and ZeniMax this week, including around 100 layoffs at Doom maker Id Software, and more than 200 at The Elder Scrolls Online studio ZeniMax Online.
In a statement, OneBGS said (via Kotaku) it wants to show Xbox management “we mean business” so that they will “think twice before ever attempting something like this again”.
“The company wants us to accept this as a done deal and quietly disappear,” it said. “We won’t let that happen. Our next steps are to mobilize. We need every single member visible and unified. To that end, we are announcing our Save Our Devs March across all studios on Wednesday, July 15th.
“We need to show management right now that we mean business, so they will properly take care of our fellow co-workers today and think twice before ever attempting something like this again. Stay strong, look out for one another, and we look forward to seeing us all marching together on the 15th.”
Bethesda union to ‘force Microsoft to place workers into open roles’
In an e-mail obtained by Game Developer, OneGBS said that Microsoft was legally required to sit down with it for ‘Effects Bargaining.’
“This means we have the right to negotiate exactly how these layoffs impact our people, and we are heading to the table to fight for every single affected worker,” it said.
“We are going to be demanding preferential transfers to force Microsoft to place affected BGS workers into open roles across Xbox and Microsoft first, stronger severance and extended healthcare to ensure no one is financially abandoned, as well as recall rights to ensure our laid-off members are the first ones hired back when BGS expands.”
The Bethesda and ZeniMax cuts are part of sweeping layoffs across the Xbox business, which it says will initially impact 1,600 jobs and stretch to 3,200 by the end of Microsoft’s business year.
Xbox intends to sell off or release five studios, but has announced no plans for closures or game cancellations, as had been feared following earlier online reports.
According to Bloomberg, Bethesda is set to undergo a significant overhaul and will pivot to focus on its biggest franchises: Fallout, The Elder Scrolls, Doom, Quake, and Wolfenstein.
