Ubisoft announced Wednesday it will close its studio in Halifax, Nova Scotia — two weeks after 74% of its staff voted to unionize.
This means laying off the 71 people at the studio, reports the gaming news site Aftermath:
[Communications Workers of America’s Canadian affiliate, CWA Canada] said in a statement to Aftermath the union will “pursue every legal recourse to ensure that the rights of these workers are respected and not infringed in any way.” The union said in a news release that it’s illegal in Canada for companies to close businesses because of unionization. That’s not necessarily what happened here, according to the news release, but the union is “demanding information from Ubisoft about the reason for the sudden decision to close.”
“We will be looking for Ubisoft t…
Ubisoft announced Wednesday it will close its studio in Halifax, Nova Scotia — two weeks after 74% of its staff voted to unionize.
This means laying off the 71 people at the studio, reports the gaming news site Aftermath:
[Communications Workers of America’s Canadian affiliate, CWA Canada] said in a statement to Aftermath the union will “pursue every legal recourse to ensure that the rights of these workers are respected and not infringed in any way.” The union said in a news release that it’s illegal in Canada for companies to close businesses because of unionization. That’s not necessarily what happened here, according to the news release, but the union is “demanding information from Ubisoft about the reason for the sudden decision to close.”
“We will be looking for Ubisoft to show us that this had nothing to do with the employees joining a union,” former Ubisoft Halifax programmer and bargaining committee member Jon Huffman said in a statement. “The workers, their families, the people of Nova Scotia, and all of us who love video games made in Canada, deserve nothing less….”
Before joining Ubisoft, the studio was best known for its work on the Rocksmith franchise; under Ubisoft, it focused squarely on mobile games.
Ubisoft Halifax was quickly removed from the Ubisoft website on Wednesday…
Read more of this story at Slashdot.