More than 200 staff at Edinburgh-based Rockstar North have signed a letter to senior management condemning the sacking of 31 employees in an action widely described as union-busting.

In the letter, Rockstar workers demand the immediate reinstatement of their colleagues, all of whom in the UK were members of the Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB).

The move comes on the heels of news earlier this month that Rockstar abruptly dismissed dozens of staff, with its parent company, Take Two Interactive, initially citing “gross misconduct” before later alleging the fired employees had leaked sensitive company information on a public forum.

While fielding questions about the further delay of GTA6, the gaming giant’s CEO, Strauss Zelnick, told IGN that the company was “proud of its culture”, with Take Two adding that the sackings were “in no way related to people’s right to join a union or engage in union activities.”  

Those claims have been roundly rejected by staff, who said that “Rockstar want us to feel scared”, with their union reps saying that the workers had been “fired illegally for unionising” via a private, legally-protected trade union Discord channel. 

Calling the sackings a clear case of victimisation and collective dismissal, the IWGB has filed a legal claim against Rockstar, pledging to “pursue all avenues” to see its blacklisted members reinstated and provided interim relief.

“We are confident that what we’ve seen here is plain and simple union busting, and we will mount a full legal defence with our expert group of caseworkers, legal officers and barristers,” said Alex Marshall, IWGB president.

“Employers like Rockstar would do well to understand that private spaces such as trade union Discord servers have protections, and that their company’s contractual clauses do not supersede UK law.”

The mass firing also sparked protests outside Rockstar’s Edinburgh headquarters on Holyrood Road and at parent company Take-Two Interactive’s London offices, with further demonstrations planned in Edinburgh on Tuesday, 18 November, to coincide with a cross-party parliamentary group meeting on Scotland’s games industry.

Reports from the picket line by RockPaperShotgun claim that union activity intensified following the developer’s return-to-office mandate last year, with staff alleging that the mass firings occurred shortly after the union hit the legal minimum for formal recognition under UK law.  

Those let go by Rockstar have seen a wave of support, including from members of Parisian gaming union STJV, which demanded the reinstatement of their Scottish brethren, saying “this act of retaliation against unions…is as unacceptable as it is pointless.”  

With Rockstar reportedly refusing to engage with the IWGB, pressure from the STJV may carry little weight, but it won’t be as easy for the developer to ignore the questions being raised in Parliament.

Speaking in the Commons, Edinburgh West MP Christine Jardine said that several of her constituents had been directly affected, prompting her to write to Rockstar for more information, with the MP receiving a promise from the government to take the matter forward to ministers.

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