There may be an argument for that, but I'm not sure you can get severance pay in that kind of scenario. Not my specialty though given that I'm not from the U.S.

It is constructive dismissal. Really it is a layoff but they want to get people to quit first because that is better for the company. But the American legalized labor system is very employer-friendly when it comes to enforcement. Often an employer can just lie, even when documentation contradicts them, and a judge or other official will simply side with the employer's narrative.

At the end of the day, labor power is always about material leverage. Don't believe the companies or the caoitakist government system that say it is based on the rules they state.