Video game workers across Europe fight back against exploitation, AI and layoffs in “historic milestone” for union efforts
Video game workers from multiple unions across Europe have released a joint statement pledging a “united front” against industry exploitation.
Last month, delegates from six game worker unions met in Paris for a summit hosted by French union Syndicat des Travailleureuses du Jeu Vidéo (STJV) to discuss the challenges facing the games industry, and are now demanding better working conditions without threat of layoffs, free from AI, and free from “authoritarian mismanagement”.
“Our jobs are under threat, we are denied a voice in our workplaces, and policies such as ‘return to office’ and tools like generative AI are being forced upon us, even though they degrade our working conditions,” the joint statement reads.
“Multinational companies already operate globally. Game workers already collaborate transnationally. It follows, then, that unions must also organise across borders.”
The statement comes from unions in the UK (IWGB Game Workers), France (STJV), Ireland (Game Workers Unite Ireland), Germany (ver.di Game Devs Roundtable), Italy (FIOM-CGIL Milan Work Council) and Spain (Coordinadora Sindical del Videojuego). It follows joint meetings and a solidarity protest outside the Paris office of Rockstar Games’ parent company Take-Two Interactive, after 31 members were dismissed from the Grand Theft Auto maker.
“From these meetings, one thing became absolutely clear: that together, workers can transform their jobs, their careers, and their lives for the better,” the statement continues. “We can do something, and we will. We vow to increase cooperation between our unions in both the short and long term, and to stay united in front of all that’s going on in our industry and the world.”
For the past few years, mass layoffs have rocked the video game industry worldwide. According to one tally, 10.5k employees lost their jobs in 2023, a further 14.6k lost their jobs in 2024, and so far this year an estimated 5.3k have lost their jobs. That’s on top of stories such as reported mismanagement at MindsEye studio Build A Rocket Boy, as well as widespread use of AI technology – EA CEO Andrew Wilson, for instance, stated AI is “the very core of our business”.
“This is a historic milestone for the video game industry,” said IWGB Game Workers delegate Scott Alsworth. “For the first time, we are seeing game workers organising across borders, coordinating campaigns, and standing together in solidarity. For years, there has been a collective sense of isolation, a climate of fear – many have felt powerless and divided in the face of seemingly unstoppable conglomerates. But now, we’re marshalling politics in the workplace and learning over again, in adversity, the struggles of the past. That there is indeed strength in unity.”
The IWGB Game Workers union has been instrumental in supporting the Rockstar employees who were controversially dismissed back in October. The union has launched a legal claim against alleged unfair dismissal, which then made its way to UK Parliament.
Later, a report claimed Rockstar employees were dismissed for sharing internal company messages on an employee and union-only Discord server.