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Today, July 15th, unionised Microsoft workers are set to hold a series of co-ordinated rallies outside the offices of Xbox-owned studios, in protest of the mass layoffs the company set in motion last week. According to the Communications Workers of America union (CWA), over 400 union-represented jobs across Bethesda Game Studios, ZeniMax, and id Software are being cut. In solidarity with the union marches, modders continue to fill Bethesda games with union logos. Skyrim was the first and Fallout 4’s the latest.
The CWA-organised protests are set to take place in six locations across North America later today. Microsoft’s campus in Redmond (Washington) is one, as are ZeniMax studios in Austin (Texas), and Rockville (Maryland). Rounding out the list are the id Software studio in Dallas (Texas), Obsidian Entertainment’s HQ in Irvine (California), and a rally outside of Montreal’s Victoria Square Park in Canada. Exact start times for each march can be found at the RSVP links I’ve slapped over each location.
“As Microsoft restructures, the workers powering its biggest franchises deserve protection, not to be treated like disposable line items,” Derrick Osobase, vice president of the CWA’s District 6 said in a union statement on the layoffs last week. “It is our CWA members who make the games that make Xbox valuable. Today’s layoffs decimated the teams at id Software, Bethesda Game Studios, and ZeniMax Online Studios, legendary studios whose employees brought us games like Doom, Quake, Elder Scrolls, and Fallout. The layoffs that occurred this week will lower the quality of these iconic games and make them less fun to play with longer delays in releases, ultimately just hurting the players and driving down revenue for Microsoft.”
The bosses are stealing our game industry, and we aim to take it back! We’re calling game workers, allies, and fans alike to join emergency rallies on WEDNESDAY, JULY 15th!
Check this thread for times and locations as they’re established: 🧵[image or embed]
— United Videogame Workers-CWA (@videogameworkers.bsky.social) 10 July 2026 at 17:10
For those who wish to show the workers support, but can’t make it to any of these rallies, a couple of modders have created a means of showing solidarity in Fallout 4. Having draped OneBGS union logos over Skyrim last week, veteran modder Emmi ‘Elianora’ Junkkari’s since worked alongside fellow modder greenFoxel to give the wasteland a similar treatment. Across their two mods, ‘Unified Front – save our devs’ and ‘One for All and All For One – Support the Devs’, the duo have added the likes of pro-union protest signs, OneBGS union-logoed vault suits, and an array of pro-union banners/posters for settlements to the RPG.
As with Junkkari’s similar mod for Skyrim, the idea’s that streamers, YouTubers, or regular players can use these works to show their support and voice their disapproval of Microsoft’s layoffs, while helping spread the word of union efforts to push back against the corp.
Solidarity to any and all folks taking part in or supporting these CWA rallies.
