Gaming
Rockstar staff vote on union recognition as GTA 6 launches
If the Rockstar Game Workers Union wins recognition, it becomes the largest recognized union in UK games, with voting set around GTA 6's launch.
Rockstar Games employees will vote on union recognition from November 12 to 26, a ballot that overlaps GTA 6's November 19 launch. The same window also holds the closing submissions in an employment tribunal over fired Rockstar workers, scheduled for November 17 and 18. In practice, staff will be filling in ballots while lawyers wrap up a dismissal case and the game they made reaches players.
A yes vote would oblige Rockstar to formally recognize the Rockstar Game Workers Union and negotiate with it on employee matters. That is the difference between a union that exists and one the company has to sit across the table from.
If the union wins recognition, it will become the largest recognized union in the UK video games industry.
The fight behind the tribunal
The IWGB and Rockstar give different accounts of the dismissals. The IWGB alleges that Rockstar unlawfully dismissed workers and accuses the company of union busting. Rockstar says it fired those employees for gross misconduct, tied to sharing confidential information in a union Discord.
Rockstar Head of Publishing Jennifer Kolbe told Bloomberg: "We go where the team goes. So if they want a union, they will have a union." The ballot is the step that would make recognition formal.
So the open question for November is simple: if employees vote yes, does Rockstar's handling of the union match the words of its publishing head, even while it defends the dismissals in court?