Less than a year after firing 34 employees, most of whom were trying to unionise, Rockstar says its staff can have a union if they want one. Head of publishing Jennifer Kolbe made the comment to Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier as part of a wide-ranging feature on how GTA 6 was made. In her words, the company goes wherever the team goes.
That’s quite the statement, given everything that has happened over the past year. The fired workers are still waiting on the outcome of a tribunal, and the game launches on November 19. Rockstar’s workplace story has been almost as dramatic as anything in Vice City.
The Firings Are Still in Front of a Tribunal
The dismissals came as a genuine shock to a lot of people. Schreier notes that he’s spoken to dozens of Rockstar employees over the years, and most had been positive about the company’s progress – from tackling crunch to removing managers who were seen as abusive or difficult to work with. Then, last year, Rockstar abruptly let go of 34 people, most of whom belonged to a group trying to form a union. The former employees accuse the company of trying to stamp out...
