In light of the recent criticism that Rockstar Games has been facing for its firing of over 30 employees, one employee from the studio has taken to the GTA Forums to talk about the company’s actions. Under request of anonymity, and having been confirmed as a real Rockstar Games employee by a forum administrator, the person – using the name Organize – has further criticised the Grand Theft Auto developers, calling the company out for union busting.
Organize has recounted the events that led up to the firing of more than 34 of their colleagues, while also noting that the reasons given by the company have “a lot of disinformation and lies that are really concerning.” They noted that the employees were individually messaged by the studio’s HR department for a meeting under a friendly guise of it being a quick chat. On attending this meeting, they were handed letters that stated that they were being terminated for “gross misconduct”. Among other things, the employees were also refused their right to representation by the union.
As for Rockstar’s claims that these employees were fired because they were “distributing and discussing confidential information in a public forum,” Organize outright denied this claim. Rather, he noted that they were in discussion with union representatives on a private Discord group chat that only had the employees themselves along with officials from the Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB).
“Let me make this clear! I never saw any discussion/leaking of Rockstar projects in the Union Discord,” wrote Organize. “The only ever discussion was around unionisation efforts and the working conditions at [Rockstar Games]. The Discord wasn’t public. It was a private Discord group that only contained [Rockstar Games] employees and the IWGB Union officials.”
“This was Union Busting and nothing else! Everyone fired was a Union Member, they were also predominantly from those who were on the Union Organising Committees of each UK studio.”
Going further, Organize has also stated that there is a fear that these firings were part of a greater effort at union busting by Rockstar Games by noting that there were over 250 members in the Discord group. He noted that, if the company is able to get away with this, they will continue to fire more employees that are taking an active part in the organising of this union.
“Those of us who are lucky and remain for now work in fear,” wrote Organize. “Fearful when talking to each other at the tea prep, fearful that we’re next in line and are easily got rid of, too scared to go outside the studio and talk to (or even acknowledge) our colleagues outside protesting in fear of reprisals. Morale in the studio is at rock bottom. When we should be excited about what’s to come over the next year we are now totally deflated and our trust and confidence in others is totally shot.”
It is worth noting that the IWGB had organised a protest outside of Take-Two Interactive’s London office shortly after the employees’ firings, calling the company out for “a blatant act of union busting”.
