Earlier this week, over 800 CWA members, video game workers, community organizations, and local labor allies 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, over 500 workers and 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 over 4,000 upvotes and nearly 900 comments on the XBOX Player Voice forum. On July 15, CWA also filed unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board, alleging several labor law violations that require the employer to engage in decisional bargaining over discretionary layoffs.

“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,” said ZeniMax Senior User Research and CWA Local 6215 member Elisabeth Whyte, who was impacted by July’s layoffs. “My hope is that 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.”

Watch the livestreamed rallies on UVW-CWA’s Twitch.

Last week, members of The NewsGuild-CWA from over two dozen Locals, signed a joint statement condemning USA Today Co.’s (formerly Gannett) partnership with data analytics company Palantir Technologies. In the statement, members express concern that the partnership “threatens to undermine trust in our news outlets and raises serious questions about the data security of our readers.”

NewsGuild members were blindsided by the announcement of the partnership, which came from USA Today Co. CEO Mike Reed during the company’s second-quarter earnings call. Reed informed investors that the company would be using Palantir’s artificial intelligence (AI) tools to gather and analyze data from readers.

Also in their statement, members asserted, “We will continue pushing back on ill-planned attempts to force AI into our newsrooms and onto our readers, who deserve quality, human-led journalism. We will advocate for the responsible use of new technologies when it emboldens our journalists and their work, instead of shamelessly promoting AI to support profit-driven corporate edicts.”

Click here to read the full statement from The NewsGuild-CWA.

In July, members of the United Videogame Workers-CWA (UVW-CWA Local 9433) launched a Game Worker Hardship Fund to assist union siblings impacted by video game industry layoffs both in the U.S. and in Canada. UVW-CWA members turned to indie video game studio Necrosoft Games for a creative way to help raise money for workers.

Over 100 Necrosoft video game producers, many of them small shops of just a few programmers, agreed to offer their games, 127 of them, in a bundle worth over a thousand dollars at the low price of only a $10 donation. Supporters flocked to the deal and raised an astounding $252,446, proving that class solidarity can achieve stunning results. Over 18,000 customers, with an average contribution of just $13.58, met and exceeded the original goal of $100,000.

Click here for more information about the Necrosoft Games fundraiser.

Last week, CWA members at Noble Knights Games reached a tentative agreement with the company, which, if ratified, would secure improvements in wages, performance pay, benefits, scheduling, time off, and workplace protections. Members achieved these gains without a single concession! The bargaining committee, pictured above, included (left to right) CWA District 4 Staff Representative Wendy Fonseca, CWA Local 4652 President Rob Boelk, and CWA members Bailey Scott, Levi Richmond, and Tanner Bolden.

Click here to learn more about the agreement.

CWA remembers the inspirational life of CWA Local 1103 Chief Steward Gerry Horgan, who was killed while fighting for his union siblings on the picket line during the 1989 strike against NYNEX. Horgan passed away after being struck by a scab worker who drove through the picket line. On the day of his funeral, CWA members, dressed in red, lined the streets for a mile leading to the church.

Today, nearly 40 years later, CWAers still wear red on Thursdays to show our solidarity and to honor the sacrifice Gerry Horgan made, giving everything in defense of his fellow workers.

 
Members of Horgan’s Local, CWA Local 1103, visited his gravesite to mark his passing and celebrate his legacy of service and sacrifice.

Video game workers and allies outside the Austin Activision building. Courtesy of CWA Local 2108 Member Emilio González.

NATIONWIDE — Yesterday, hundreds of CWA-represented video game workers, community organizations, and local labor allies 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. 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. The Communications Workers of America (CWA) represents nearly 4,000 video game workers at XBOX throughout the US and Canada.

“Each of the 1600 people from July’s layoffs have their own unique tale, and every developer still employed at an XBOX studio lives in anxious fear, waiting to discover if they are one of the next 1600 stories,” said id Software Principal Engine Programmer and CWA Local 6215 member John “Jebus” Roberts, who was laid off as part of July’s job cuts. “We cannot allow Microsoft to set a precedent of ignoring federal labor law, leaving so many union workers discarded.”

“When I first started working [at Bethesda Game Studios], I was in awe. I wanted nothing more than to contribute to the legacy created by the developers here: the people who forever changed my perception of what a video game could be like when I first played Fallout 3 at 8 years old,” said Bethesda Game Studios Quest Designer and CWA Local 2108 member Stephanie Zachariadis, who was laid off as part of July’s job cuts. “Now? The legends who filled those trophy cases are, for the most part, gone, laid off, or driven away.”

 
Laid off CWA Local 2108 member and former ZeniMax Online Studios Senior Motion Graphics Artist Alyssa Gobelle in front of Scabby the Rat in Hunt Valley, Md.

Video game workers 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, over 500 CWA members and 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 over 4,000 upvotes and nearly 900 comments on the XBOX Player Voice forum. On July 15, CWA also filed unfair labor practice 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.

 
CWA-SCA Local 30111 and video game supporters rallying outside Prince and Wellington Street in Montréal, Canada.

“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,” said ZeniMax Senior User Researcher and CWA Local 6215 member Elisabeth Whyte, who was laid off as part of July’s job cuts. “My hope is that 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. I hope that one day profitable companies will start putting the needs of game workers first so that we can deliver the amazing and fun experiences our customers expect. Until that day, people like us have to keep fighting.”

Watch the livestreamed rallies on UVW-CWA’s Twitch.

###

The Campaign to Organize Digital Employees (CODE-CWA) is a network of worker-organizers and their staff working every single day to build the voice and power necessary to ensure the future of the tech, game, and digital industries in the United States and Canada. CODE-CWA is a project of the Communications Workers of America which represents hundreds of thousands of workers throughout tech, media, telecom, and other industries who stand together to fight for justice on the job and in our communities.

cwa-union.org @cwaunion

The following statement is from CWA President Claude Cummings Jr.:

Our union has become the latest target of a corrupt administration that weaponizes the legal process against law-abiding Americans exercising our Constitutional rights. CWA is a union that harnesses the power of our collective voice and peaceful protest to stand up for one another, to keep our neighbors safe, and to build good jobs to provide for our families. We are part of a proud tradition of ordinary Americans who join together in union halls and church basements to make this country better.

But our values of unity, of community, are under attack by a president and his Department of Homeland Security that sends government spies to surveil community meetings in church basements. But mark my words: CWA is a union with a long history of standing up to bullies and billionaire bosses. We will not be intimidated, and we will not be silenced in our solidarity with our members, with our communities, and with our neighbors.

Our union halls remain open. Our fight continues. Together, we will speak out, we will vote, we will fight, and we will win.

###

About CWA: The Communications Workers of America represents working people in telecommunications, customer service, media, airlines, health care, public service and education, manufacturing, tech, and other fields.

cwa-union.org @cwaunion

Microsoft XBOX workers are calling on the company to respect their critical role in identifying appropriate use cases for generative artificial intelligence by negotiating a strong union contract.

(NATIONWIDE) — As XBOX workers negotiate their first union contracts with Microsoft, generative artificial intelligence (GAI) is a significant sticking point with management. A new survey of video game workers finds that the workers who develop beloved video game franchises are determined to protect human creativity and job quality from corrosive uses of AI.

The survey, conducted by the Communications Workers of America (CWA) in collaboration with researchers at Cornell University and Western University, surveyed 759 video game workers about GAI, including hundreds at Microsoft XBOX studios. This preliminary report summarizes findings from respondents who identified their employer as a Microsoft XBOX studio (209 respondents) and those who identified their employer as a non-Microsoft studio (155) and excludes respondents who did not provide their employer. Findings include:

• A majority of workers expressed concern that AI would be used to replace some or all parts of their jobs, with 40% extremely concerned and another 20% moderately concerned.
• Microsoft studio respondents were significantly more likely than workers at other video game companies to report risks of layoffs within the next two years driven specifically by automation and outsourcing. Over 54% of Microsoft workers felt that automation- or outsourcing-related layoffs were somewhat or very likely, compared to less than 35% of workers at other studios.
• Among those respondents who use GAI, a majority agreed that it creates additional work correcting mistakes (59%), while 50% agreed that it makes work more stressful and 56% disagreed that it improves the quality of games.
• Regarding the degree of worker influence over the use of GAI, Microsoft respondents reported less influence compared to non-Microsoft respondents. Only 27% of respondents from Microsoft studios reported having high levels of influence over how they used GAI tools in their work, compared to 42% from non-Microsoft studios.
• The issues of highest concern across all survey respondents, with over 70% reporting they were ‘extremely concerned,’ were ethical: concerns with AI stealing intellectual property and having a negative environmental impact.

“Our data show that fears and frustrations about AI are real and warranted,” said Johanna Weststar, Western University Associate Professor of Management & Organizational Studies. “Game workers are no stranger to technological innovation, and their expertise and experience can improve AI implementation decisions.”

CWA-represented XBOX workers are the developers, artists, engineers, producers, user researchers, and customer support staff behind some of the video game industry’s most profitable games, including Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, Overwatch, World of Warcraft, and more.

As XBOX workers ramp up their public mobilizations calling for Microsoft to bargain more constructively, these survey findings demonstrate workers are the conscience of the video game industry. XBOX workers are calling on company leaders to embrace a high-road approach to the development and implementation of GAI that centers workers and the quality of the games that they take such care to produce.

###

About CWA: The Communications Workers of America represents working people in telecommunications, customer service, media, airlines, health care, public service and education, manufacturing, tech, and other fields.

cwa-union.org @cwaunion

Take Action to “Save Our Devs”!

On August 18, join CWA, video game workers, and gamers for coordinated rallies across the United States and Canada!

Last month, hundreds of our fellow members working at Microsoft’s gaming division—now rebranded as XBOX—received discretionary layoff notices without prior notice to the union. While Microsoft continues to boast billions of dollars in annual revenue, XBOX workers behind the entertainment industry's most profitable and iconic franchises are treated as disposable.

CWA members have countered these layoffs with common-sense protections at the bargaining table, but management sits on those proposals without real responses or change.

An injury to one worker is an injury to us all. We are calling on Microsoft to reverse these layoffs and to bargain first contracts with our members!

Click here to RSVP to a rally near you.

Tune into UVW-CWA's Twitch livestream at 9:30AM PT/12:30PM ET to watch the rallies virtually.

~~~

Support the Double the Wage Act

CWA political ally Senator Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) recently introduced the Double the Wage for Overtime Act, designed to put more money in your pocket. This bill would increase the pay for overtime hours worked from the traditional time-and-a-half.

Click here to show your support for higher wages!

In July, members of the CWA Broadband Brigade scored a victory in the fight for universal, high-speed internet access. During a meeting of the National Conference of State Legislatures’ (NCSL) Technology and Communications Committee, members took up the Universal Service Fund (USF) Modernization Resolution, officially making it an NCSL directive. The resolution will no longer need annual approval but will now remain in place for four years.

CWA staff worked with Broadband Brigade member Marcus Chambers and CWA District 2-13 Administrative Director Lisa Fazzini to locate a sponsor for the resolution. Former NewsGuild-CWA President Linda Foley, who is now a member of the Maryland House of Delegates, sponsored the resolution.

The USF Modernization Resolution asserts the NCSL’s support for modernizing the USF to ensure it remains sustainable and relevant in a broadband-first era. This directive will help support good jobs for CWA members and make service more reliable and affordable for customers.

The NCSL represents legislatures in the states, territories, and commonwealths of the U.S. Its mission is to advance the effectiveness, independence, and integrity of legislatures. It is also tasked with fostering interstate cooperation and facilitating the exchange of information among legislatures.

This win is a direct result of the efforts of our Legislative and Political activists engaging political allies to promote policies that improve working conditions for our members. This work is supported by members through donations to the Political Action Fund.