As Rockstar accuse fired staff of leaking secrets, unions launch street protests against publisher Take-Two
Last week, GTA 6 developers Rockstar Games suddenly fired around 30 UK-based workers on a charge of “gross misconduct”. According to the UK’s IWGB Game Workers Union, the firings are in fact retaliation against staff for attempting to unionise, as is their right under UK law. They called it “the most blatant and ruthless act of union busting in the history of the games industry.”
This week, Rockstar pushed back against these claims in a new statement to Bloomberg, accusing the fired employees of sharing “confidential information on a public forum”. The IWGB insist, however, that the “public forum” alluded to was just a private Discord channel for IWGB members and Rockstar developers to discuss working conditions and unionisation efforts, and that no confidential information was shared. The IWGB have also organised gatherings across the UK to show solidarity for the affected Rockstar staff. This morning, I attended one such gathering – a protest outside Rockstar parent company Take-Two Interactive’s offices in London.
The gathering was small but lively, consisting of both unionised game developers and representatives from affiliated IWGB unions of cleaners, university staff and charity workers. Protesters chanted, let off coloured smoke, blew airhorns, played drums, gave speeches in Spanish and English, and offered fliers to passers-by. There were official IWGB banners and more targeted, improvisational placards, such as “All you had to do was follow the damn law, Rockstar!” – a reference to an infamously annoying pursuit mission in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, which I am tempted to steal for the next RPS strapline.
Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun
The event was peaceful, with no police activity beyond a patrol car on the corner, which may have been present for other reasons. There were no Take-Two staff on the picket line to my knowledge, nor did those inside the building engage with the protestors, beyond peering cautiously from upper windows. At the end of the protest, the unionised workers left messages of support in pavement chalk, before heading off to their day jobs.
Following the protest, I asked Alex Marshall, the president of the IWGB, for a longer response to Rockstar’s accusation that the laid-off workers have leaked company secrets. “This is typical union-busting behaviour,” he said. “It’s really in character for what we’ve seen from Rockstar so far.
“These workers, some of them have worked for the company for years,” Marshall went on. “They really like the job they do – they’re gamers, they’re passionate about this work. They respect the confidentiality of the company. They’ve never done anything to overstep that. But as we’ve seen, Rockstar seem more interested in trying to claim the discourse and cover up their bad behaviour than actually engage with the workers, some of whom are now facing having to leave the country, some of them are struggling to feed their families and pay their bills, because they’ve just had their lives turned on their heads.”
Marshall reiterated that the laid-off staff were simply exercising their legal right to organise under the UK’s Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act of 1992. “Workers in any workplace, they create spaces in which they’re able to have conversations, and what Rockstar are alleging is that confidential material has been leaked,” he continued. “But it’s just simply untrue – workers have gathered in a space where they are all workers for the company, and they’re discussing workplace issues. They haven’t breached any confidentiality. It has been shared worker to worker. It’s completely disingenuous what they’re claiming.”
Rockstar and Take-Two have not hitherto expressed public opposition to staff unionisation efforts – as Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick observed to GamesIndustry.biz back in 2019, “we’re a compliant company and will serve the law. If our colleagues want to engage in collective bargaining, then we will”. Marshall argues, however, that the recent firings are evidence of a wider “completely anti-union” drive.
“Rockstar claim in statements that they happily engage with workers on an individual basis,” he told me. “But the behaviour throughout this shows something completely different. Companies always claim that they support workers, that there are channels. The fact that workers were organising, shows that there was a need for them to come together and push for better pay and conditions, because the employer was neglecting that.”
With regard to Rockstar’s forthcoming GTA 6, which is forecast to make billions for Take-Two, Marshall added that “everyone needs to see that, because although it’s a game adored by millions, the company behind the game are completely toxic and they need to start looking after their workers.” He feels that there has been a “swell of support” for the laid-off Rockstar staff among game developers both inside the UK and overseas.
Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun
“There’s a real sense in the industry of the need to organise from these workers, who are passionate about the work they do, but also have seen the conditions they often have to work under – whether that’s you know, seven-day weeks, or whether that’s toxic behaviour in the workplace,” Marshall told me. “They’ve seen a need to build unions. So there’s this real positive movement across the industry around the world to be building unions. And that same community has really showed up for these workers during this difficult time.”
The IWGB are now working on a legal defence for the laid-off Rockstar employees. “I can’t really say anything about that at this stage, because obviously we’re building the case,” Marshall said. “But that will come to light sometime soon.” In the meantime, union organisers and game developers are planning further protests. RPS have separately confirmed that there were several gatherings of Rockstar staff outside Rockstar North’s headquarters in Edinburgh this week, with another gathering to be held as this report goes to press. Best of luck to everybody trying to get the GTA creators to follow that damn train.
We reached out to Take-Two representatives for comment, but they did not immediately reply.
