--- description: Twitter employees circulated an open letter pushing back against being 'pawns in a game played by billionaires.' title: Exclusive: Twitter Employees Protest Elon Musk's Plan to Fire 75% of Workforce image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfa461a1c90cb5d80/698a36b1cabb1d0ed1e50c93/GettyImages-1242720043.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Business](/section/business/) ## Business Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Companies](/tag/companies/) ## Companies Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Exclusive: Twitter Employees Protest Elon Musk's Plan to Fire 75% of Workforce  by [Billy Perrigo](/author/billy-perrigo/)  ## Billy Perrigo Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Correspondent Oct 24, 2022 6:51 PM CUT  Elon Musk, SpaceX founder, during a T-Mobile and SpaceX joint event on August 25, 2022 in Boca Chica Beach, Texas. Elon Musk, SpaceX founder, during a T-Mobile and SpaceX joint event on August 25, 2022 in Boca Chica Beach, Texas.Michael Gonzalez/Getty Images  by [Billy Perrigo](/author/billy-perrigo/)  ## Billy Perrigo Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Correspondent Oct 24, 2022 6:51 PM CUT Employees at Twitter are circulating an open letter protesting [Elon Musk’s](https://time.com/person-of-the-year-2021-elon-musk/ "undefined") plan to fire as much as 75% of the company’s workforce, as the deadline for him to complete his $44 billion acquisition of the company looms, TIME has learned. Musk must complete the acquisition by Friday or face the resumption of a lawsuit in a Delaware court. Elon Musk told prospective funders of his Twitter acquisition that he planned to replace or eradicate the jobs of nearly 75% of Twitter’s staff, reducing headcount from 7,500 to just 2,000, the Washington Post [reported](https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/10/20/musk-twitter-acquisition-staff-cuts/ "undefined") last week. Musk has previously claimed that the social media company is bloated, and has also [said](https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1523653429410770945 "undefined") its workforce has a “strong left-wing bias.” **Read More:** [_Whether or Not He Buys Twitter, Elon Musk Has Thrown the Company Into Turmoil_](https://time.com/6196808/elon-musk-twitter-lawsuit/ "undefined") TIME reviewed a draft of the open letter circulating among Twitter employees on Monday. “Elon Musk’s plan to lay off 75% of Twitter workers will hurt Twitter’s ability to serve the public conversation,” said the draft of the letter, which has not yet been published. “A threat of this magnitude is reckless, undermines our users’ and customers’ trust in our platform, and is a transparent act of worker intimidation.” The letter demands that Musk commits to preserving Twitter’s current headcount if his takeover of the company goes through. It also demands he does not discriminate against employees based on their political beliefs and that he commits to “fair” severance policies and more communication about working conditions. “We demand to be treated with dignity, and to not be treated as mere pawns in a game played by billionaires,” the list of demands says. It was unclear how many Twitter employees had signed the letter at the time of publication. “Signatures will not be made public unless we have critical mass,” said a note sent to prospective signatories. ## **The full text of the open letter** --- > “” --- ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6224380/elon-musk-twitter-open-letter/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6224380/elon-musk-twitter-open-letter/"},"headline":"Exclusive: Twitter Employees Protest Elon Musk's Plan to Fire 75% of Workforce","datePublished":"2022-10-24T18:51:15.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:52:50.444Z","description":"The employees circulated an open letter pushing back against being 'pawns in a game played by billionaires'","url":"https://time.com/6224380/elon-musk-twitter-open-letter/","keywords":["Companies","Tech","Technology","biztech2030"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfa461a1c90cb5d80/698a36b1cabb1d0ed1e50c93/GettyImages-1242720043.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Billy Perrigo","jobTitle":"Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/billy-perrigo/"}],"articleSection":"Business","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfa461a1c90cb5d80/698a36b1cabb1d0ed1e50c93/GettyImages-1242720043.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"SpaceX And T-Mobile Hold Joint Event In Texas","caption":"SpaceX And T-Mobile Hold Joint Event In Texas","creditText":"Michael Gonzalez/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/business/","name":"Business"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/companies/","name":"Companies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/6224380/elon-musk-twitter-open-letter/","name":"Exclusive: Twitter Employees Protest Elon Musk's Plan to Fire 75% of Workforce"}}]}] ```