The Communications Workers of America union (CWA) has responded to Microsoft’s recent decision to axe 650 jobs as “extremely disappointing”.
In their statement, the CWA pointed out that as one of the world’s most successful corporations, Microsoft should be in a position to have a sustainable employee model.
The statement read: “While we would hope that a company like Microsoft with $88 Billion in profits last year could achieve long term success without destroying the livelihoods of 650 of our colleagues, heartless layoffs like these have become all too common.
“We stand in solidarity with everyone who lost their job and encourage all video game workers to join with us and form unions so we can protect each other.”
The union acknowledges that organising doesn’t “always protect against layoffs”, but that “collective bargaining does give workers a voice in the policies that affect them, including how layoffs are handled.”
With these new cuts, Microsoft has now laid off over 2500 of its staff in the last year alone (thanks, Eurogamer).