Ubisoft’s unions STJV, CFE-CGC, CGT, Printemps Ecologique, and Solidaries Infortmatique are calling for “a massive international strike.”
Last week, Ubisoft announced plans for a dramatic restructuring in which it confirmed the cancellation of six games, including the Prince of Persia remake, the delay of seven more, a return to full-time in-office work, and a “final” round of layoffs and studio closures designed to save €200 million. Then, earlier this week, the publisher proposed 200 roles would be cut from Ubisoft International in Paris. The company has started a voluntary redundancy program to deliver the cuts, with delivery to be negotiated with trade unions.
Now, in an emotive joint statement, the unions said there had been “no dialogue or respect” between Ubisoft management and union representatives, adding “the announced transformation claims to place games at the heart of its strategy, but without us, these games cannot exist.”
The statement calls for a four-day strike across February 10, 11, 12, and 12 in a bid to say “no to [Ubisoft management’s] anti-remote-work obsession, to ‘cost-cutting’ plans on employees’ backs, to top-down decisions, to coercive control on our working conditions.”
The unions slam the company’s lack of communication, claiming that staff learned of the cuts at the “same time as the press,” and state none of the proposals had been discussed via the mandatory consultations with the unions and its representatives “a few days earlier.”
“We are promised autonomy for Creative Houses, but what about autonomy for employees? Five days of mandatory in-office work: we are treated like children who need to be supervised, while our management gets away with lies and breaking the law.”
The unions say they have been negotiating the firm’s remote working policy for over a year, “sometimes under difficult conditions,” and an agreement had already been in place at some studios.
“Our colleagues carry on, hold fast, endure, out of solidarity, out of love for the industry, and out of passion. But enough is enough. It is because we love Ubisoft that this situation revolts us!
“It is time for our management to understand that they cannot do whatever they want, whether with public money or the work of hundreds of people. Without us, Ubisoft would never have conquered and transformed video games as it has done.”
