Summary
The final hearing in the legal battle between a group of former Rockstar workers and the GTA 6 studio over the latter’s decision to fire the former last year kicks off this week. It’ll get underway on September 10th, and the Independent Workers’ union of Great Britain (IWGB) - who’re representing the fired staff - are organising a rally to take place first thing on that opening day. If you’re out of the loop, the 34 former Rockstar staffers were fired in November last year, with the root of the issue reportedly being discussion of a new company Slack policy in a union-run Discord server. Rockstar accused the staff of leaking “confidential information on a public forum” as justification for the move, while the IWGB in turn accused Rockstar of union busting. In June, an employment tribunal ruled that the fired developers would be able to bring claims of blacklisting against Rockstar during this final hearing, as part of their argument that the company took action against that staff because of their union activity. The hearing will run from September 10th until at least October 15th at Glasgow Tribunals Centre. The IWGB plan to host a rally outside the venue at 8:30 AM on the opening day of the hearing. “As the world prepares for the release of GTA VI, we are reliving the heartbreak of being thrown out of a project we poured so much of our lives into.” IWGB Union member and former Rockstar staffer Jason Lewis said in a union press release. “We lost our jobs, our income, our community and the chance to see the game through to release after spending years helping to build it. It was devastating. “We have fought tooth and nail to get to this point, not just to be able to win justice for ourselves, but to draw a line in the sand for any employer that thinks it can attack workers for unionising. It has been an emotional journey and it is not over yet, but we can now see the finish line, and justice at last feels within reach.” The fired developers have asked supporters to back them by buying specially-designed union merchandise rather than boycotting GTA 6, with proceeds from the merch going towards the group’s “Fighting Fund”. Meanwhile, remaining Rockstar devs and the IWGB have been busy forming the Rockstar Games Workers Union and are seeking recognition from the company prior to GTA 6’s console release on November 19th. Read this next
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