‘I think we’re in the fight of our lives’: Fired Rockstar employees and IWGB are confident the GTA 6 developer will be held accountable for its alleged union busting
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The fallout from Rockstar’s firing of over 30 employees last week continues as workers gather outside the offices in protest of what the Independent Workers’ of Great Britain (IWGB) union alleges was a “brazen” act of union busting. YouTube channel People Make Games spoke with some of the developers and IWGB organizers about how they’re fighting back against the Grand Theft Auto 6 developer and what happens next.
The IWGB says that “public forum” was just a private Discord server where employees were speaking with labor organizers and that Rockstar’s decision was “one of the most blatant and ruthless acts of union busting in the history of the games industry.”
Since the firing, the former employees and union members have been protesting outside the offices of Rockstar North and Take-Two in Edinburgh holding signs and shouting through megaphones.
“The energy, the excitement, that spark that made this place so special is now shattered,” a current Rockstar employee wrote in a letter read aloud by an IWGB organizer credited as Fred. “And I know I’m not the only one who feels this way right now. I know I’m not alone. And it’s heartbreaking because right now, when we should be more united, and focused on the project than ever, most of us are scared, hurt, and feel uncertain.”
Fred says that the goal is for all the workers to be reinstated with compensation to make up for the pay loss they experienced during the period, and for Rockstar to be accountable for “the way these dismissals have been handled, these very clear unfair dismissals without procedure, without evidence.”
The IWGB has issued an appeal and is waiting for Rockstar’s response. “What happens next is up to Rockstar,” he said. “I have never seen a thing like this, not just in the game sector but in the UK trade union organizing in the last 20 years. This is the moment they can make that right. These are workers who just want to go back to work to work on the game that they love. If they don’t [comply], they’ve seen what they have to contend with. The force of public feeling is against them on this. And we’ll continue to put pressure on them through legal, through demonstrations, speaking about what these workers have experienced.”
Neither Rockstar or Take-Two has made any additional comments about the situation. The last news to come from them was that GTA 6 will be delayed from its May 2026 date to November 2026. Take-Two said the extra time is needed to “finish the game with the level of polish you have come to expect and deserve.”
Fred tells PMG that he believes the cost of the firing, including the delays and any money Rockstar might end up having to pay out, will have been accounted for, but that he’s confident things won’t go Rockstar management’s way.
“What they will never have accounted for, and something I’ve never seen management account for, is the bonds that people feel in their work, their willingness to stand up for each other and fight, the strength that’s in a collective of people willing to put themselves at risk, willing to put their voices in the mix to stand behind them,” he says. “And they don’t account for that because they don’t understand it. They’ve never seen it. We haven’t seen it in the games industry. They’ve never seen it in their boardrooms, and they’re about to find out what that means.”
