The Rockstar Game Workers Union (RGWU), which was formed earlier this year in response to the Grand Theft Auto 6 developer’s massively controversial job cuts, now has “more members than it ever had before”.
According to a new video by People Make Games, the RGWU is currently asking Rockstar to voluntarily recognise it. If the studio does not, the path is open for statutory recognition – a process that could force the studio to recognise the union, and which is only possible due to the RGWU’s increased membership.
If the Rockstar developer union is recognised, it would be the second and, by a substantial margin, largest video game union in the UK. Currently, the largest is ZA/UM’s union, which was formed in October of last year
Speaking to People Make Games, Alex Marshall, the president of the Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain- of which the RGWU is a subsidiary – confirmed negotiations between the IWGB and Rockstar Games are currently in the works. A first meeting is expected soon. Marshall added that if Rockstar Games doesn’t engage in good faith during the meetings, the IWGB is “very happy to use different mechanisms to ensure recognition.”
Marshall also provided insight into the RGWU’s burgeoning numbers, explaining there was a “chilling effect” that impacted the prospect of forming a union immediately after Rockstar’s firing of around 30 developers last year. Since then, an “element of rebuilding” has taken place, amid a growing appetite for unionisation within the studio.
Rockstar has faced accusations of attempted union-busting following last year’s controversial layoffs, but it has denied those assertions, arguing it didn’t know who was or wasn’t a union member when it fired staff for what it called gross misconduct.
Since then, the matter has become a major ongoing issue within the UK games industry. Protests took place outside Rockstar parent company Take-Two’s offices in the months following the layoffs, and the incident even reached UK parliament. At the time, former prime minister Keir Starmer called the Rockstar firings “deeply concerning”.