Last Friday evening, despite the bitter cold, around 50 people gathered outside Grand Theft Auto VI developer Rockstar’s office in Manhattan to protest the October firing of 34 workers in the UK and Scotland who had engaged in union organizing activity. Chants like “Steal lambos, not wages” were accompanied by signs that read “No workers, no GTA” and “Bad boss = bad game.”
The protest was put on by the Tech Workers Coalition, a labor rights group with chapters around the US. Gershom (who declined to share his last name), a developer with the Tech Workers Coalition, told Aftermath that the goal of the protest was to …
Last Friday evening, despite the bitter cold, around 50 people gathered outside Grand Theft Auto VI developer Rockstar’s office in Manhattan to protest the October firing of 34 workers in the UK and Scotland who had engaged in union organizing activity. Chants like “Steal lambos, not wages” were accompanied by signs that read “No workers, no GTA” and “Bad boss = bad game.”
The protest was put on by the Tech Workers Coalition, a labor rights group with chapters around the US. Gershom (who declined to share his last name), a developer with the Tech Workers Coalition, told Aftermath that the goal of the protest was to keep pressure on Rockstar and show support for fired workers as they head into a UK court hearing this week.
"We’re connected with the Rockstar workers in the UK who were fired, and they asked us to help organize international solidarity actions to show Rockstar that it can’t hide attacks on workers in one country anywhere else,” Gershom said. “We want to take it to the New York offices and show [the bosses] that no matter where they are, we’re gonna be here letting people know what they’re doing to their workers and letting their customers know what they’re doing to their workers."
The crowd was largely made up of members from supportive organizations like the Democratic Socialists Of America (DSA) and unions like Industrial Workers Of The World (IWW), United Auto Workers (UAW), and Communications Workers Of America (CWA), the latter of which has played a pivotal role in unionizing thousands of workers across Microsoft. Independent Workers’ Union Of Great Britain (IWGB) – which is helping Rockstar workers organize and, now, pursue legal action against Rockstar – did not have a presence, as it is predominantly based in the UK.
"It’s important that we stand against all of those threats as a single workers’ movement."
"I was available, so I came," Marcin, a member of IWW, told Aftermath. "I always knew that Rockstar was not a very good company in terms of treating their workers [well], but goddamn. The whole gaming industry, the working conditions are very toxic. Crunch culture ... is in my opinion inhumane and quite abusive. I don’t think anybody should be treated that way."
Tech workers from companies like Google and Meta marched alongside grad workers from Columbia University.
"Employers across industries right now are firing people without cause, whether that’s due to manufactured austerity crises or in response to organizing – or some combination,” Johanna, a member of Student Workers Of Columbia-UAW who said she was fired for organizing earlier this year, told Aftermath. “And it’s important that we stand against all of those threats as a single workers’ movement. … It’s a cliche, but what happens to one of us happens to all of us."
Others in attendance could attest to the effectiveness of unions banding together. Dannel Jurado, a member, steward, and collective bargaining committee member of Kickstarter United – which just ended a 42-day strike after securing an escalating minimum salary floor tied to cost of living and a codified 32-hour, 4-day workweek, among other things – told Aftermath that a “pay it forward” mentality informed his decision to join the Rockstar protest.
"It was really heartening to see folks come out from Starbucks – who are clearly on strike – and CODE-CWA, especially the Google folks and the New York Times Tech Guild folks,” Jurado said of Kickstarter’s strike. “We saw people come out from RA unions; we have in our local a bunch of RA unions who really came out in support of us. Student groups as well. We saw teamsters come out. Amazon labor folks."
"Today’s the day we ratified our second contract we went on strike for,” he continued. “In a discussion during that meeting, we told each other ‘We can’t shut up about this. We can’t shut up about our contract, about how union solidarity gets the goods.’ It’s a big deal for us to be out here because we saw that when we were trying to organize strike rallies across the country – which we did successfully in Boston, New York, and Seattle – we saw folks who came out just to support us. Every single person counts, whether they knew what our message was or not."
Game developers, however, were few and far between at the protest, which according to Gershom came together at the last second and largely drew on established connections between tech workers and unions, as opposed to NYC’s local game dev scene.
“What we’re all out here to do is help give those workers support,” said Gershom. “They asked us to do this earlier than we would have otherwise, because it’s not just about bad publicity. They’re gonna be walking into court there in Britain. They want to be able to know and see photos all around the world of people standing there with them.”
After the protest, organizers and others in attendance spoke of hypothetical links that had yet to be hammered into the chain: For example, major motion picture guilds like SAG-AFTRA and IATSE have every reason to support Rockstar workers considering how much Hollywood talent Rockstar’s games draw on. One SAG member was in attendance, Sarah Elmaleh – negotiating chair on the union’s recent, voice actor strike-ending interactive media agreement – but of her own accord as opposed to in any official capacity.
"I was [in town] for the holidays, and I was like ‘Oh shit, maybe I can go help,’" Elmaleh told Aftermath. "I know that some of [the fired Rockstar workers] have been at this company longer than I’ve been doing voiceover, and that’s a long time. So it seems very clear to me that they know how to take care of their company’s information, and they love what they do and they want to make this game. Every union that’s not quite started up yet is vulnerable, and they deserve other folks who’ve enjoyed long-term benefits and protections from that right to stand up and support their right to do that."
"It seems very clear to me that [Rockstar workers] know how to take care of their company’s information, and they love what they do and they want to make this game."
As evidenced by both the nascent state of unions in the video game industry and the relative lack of game worker presence at a demonstration ostensibly dedicated to game workers, organizing is a long, sometimes diffuse process. But even where a series about stealing cars and going really, really fast is concerned, slow and steady wins the race.
"There’s a difference between developers and performers, but we’re both game workers,” said Elmaleh. “We both work on games. Breaking down that boundary is really important to us understanding the conditions we both work under to support each other in light of that. … It can be scary when you’re doing something like this, and bodies and support and voices make you feel less alone and make you less vulnerable to being picked off. It’s really crucial that we do this together. That’s time tested."