Union workers at Bethesda plan to go on strike beginning on July 15, according to new reports.
Rebekah Valentine of Kotaku first reported that protests are scheduled in response to the recent large layoffs at Xbox, which affected 440 employees at Bethesda and ZeniMax. The CWA-affiliated Bethesda Game Studios union, OneBGS, plans to hold marches outside its studios in Montreal, Quebec; Rockville, Maryland; Austin, Texas; and Dallas. The marches will begin on Wednesday, July 15, at 12:30 pM Eastern Time.
- More on the ZeniMax Layoffs: Affected ID Software Employees Describe Layoffs as a ‘Bloodbath’
Statement from the OneBGS Union Regarding Upcoming Protests
In a statement, the union says they will not quietly disappear and that they’re taking the next step to mobilize and show those in charge that they must properly care for their co-workers.
The company wants us to accept this as a done deal and quietly disappear. 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.
XBOX is in the middle of a major reset that has resulted in more than 1,000 job cuts within XBOX and nearly 5,000 across Microsoft. Read more about these cuts and the memo Xbox CEO Asha Sharma sent to employees about the reset at this link.
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For more, check out details from a recent strike by those working on Star Wars Eclipse. Also, don’t forget to sign up for our weekly newsletter.
This is how jobs get outsourced also no one cares about them. Funny no one protested when Sony shut down studios and more on the way. These companies will be changing political donations moving forward and who they give promotion to.