Microsoft, which subcontracts the quality assurance provider, has a standing labor neutrality agreement with the Communications Workers of America.

The Lionbridge layoffs come during a huge wave of layoffs across the video game industry, during which around 6,400 workers lost their jobs in 2023 and 2024, including 1,900 Activision Blizzard and Xbox employees in January.

The unfair labor practice charge filed Monday also alleges that Lionbridge offered workers severance agreements with terms that are illegal under the National Labor Relations Act. The press release said that these agreements included requirements “to agree to overly broad confidentiality terms,” which the National Labor Relations Board ruled unlawful last year.

“We do much the same work that union-represented Activision QA employees do, and Microsoft should make sure that everyone working on its games is treated with respect in line with its labor principles, including employees of contractors,” Bussabarger said in a statement.

    • @[email protected]English
      3•8 days ago

      Honest answer is yes they do as do all of these major tech companies. The problem is QA is historically underresourced in most companies.

      • @[email protected]English
        3•7 days ago

        We were on Windows 10 for several years before microsoft issued the statement that Windows 10 is now stable and ready for server deployment. Some of their QA is now user end

  • FiveMacsEnglish
    10•8 days ago

    More departments should start the unionization process then. Call their bluff. They gonna fire everyone or accept it.

    I’d love to see companies just fire every single employee and see how well they do.break the economy and break these companies in an effort to better the ones who actually make them what they are worth.

    Take the power back.

      • AlbumEnglish
        4•7 days ago

        Same. Had to hide it. Tired of it being the first thing i see 100x a day.

    • @pelespiritOPMEnglish
      1•7 days ago

      Did they pull it? I’m not seeing it. Wild though.

      • m-p{3}English
        2•6 days ago

        Sorry, we had some issues related to Lemmy 0.19.4 about pinning and unpinning posts, and this one might have slipped through by mistake while trying to fix it.

        It should be fixed :)

        • @pelespiritOPMEnglish
          2•6 days ago

          Thanks, no worries. I wondered why there was an uptick in traffic, now I know.

        • AlbumEnglish
          4•6 days ago

          I messaged the lemmy.ca admins yesterday around 7pm. Maybe that worked.

          • @pelespiritOPMEnglish
            2•6 days ago

            I think it did, someone said there was a bug with the new version that was pinning and unpinning posts. I bet that was fun to hunt down.