CWA Union Says Xbox Employees 'Will not be Treated as Disposable' - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 01 July 2026 / 1,474 Views
Ahead of expected mass layoffs at Microsoft's Xbox division, the Communications Workers of America (CWA) union District 9 vice president Frank Arce in a call with the press, reported by Kotaku, stated Xbox employees "will not be treated as disposable."
Multiple people in the call said the layoffs were unnecessary in the first place. Arce pointed to the recent Xbox Series X and S price hikes and said, "the money is there, leadership is simply choosing where it goes and who pays."
United Video Game Workers representative Sherveen Uduwana pointed to the $96.5 million dollar salary Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella make last year. Diablo IV senior environment artist Mahreen Fatima also mentioned the billions of dollar Microsoft has invested in artificial intelligence over the last few years and demanded proof the company was short on money.
There are multiple unions across different studios at Xbox. Some CWA members even mentioned the World of Warcraft union bargaining team made positive movement on layoff protection from management. However, Zenimax union members have stated Microsoft have sat on their proposal for layoffs protections for months with no response. One Activision Publishing union member said their bargaining group had 20 proposals and are waiting on a response from Microsoft for all of them.
The people in the call emphasized they want layoff protections cemented for all workers at Xbox and not just the ones unionized. This includes advanced notice of layoffs, two years of recall rights, and hiring freezes to give existing employees chances to find new opportunities across Xbox.
Activision Publishing QA tester Andrew Snell said, "We’re done paying for executives’ failures."
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can follow the author on Bluesky.
