More than 700 unionized employees of Ubisoft working across the company’s French studios engaged in a coordinated day of strike action following the collapse of annual salary negotiations.
Organized by the French game workers union STJV (Syndicat des Travailleurs et Travailleuses du Jeu Vidéo), the strike occurred on February 14th across Ubisoft’s Paris, Montpellier, Annecy, Lyon, and Bordeaux studios. The STJV had called for action earlier in the month, citing dissatisfaction with the outcome of the annual salary negotiations.
“In recent weeks,” the STJV stated, “Mandatory Annual Negotiations on salaries have taken place in several Ubisoft entities in France, and the STJV was obviously present. Despite concerted efforts by union organizations to find an acceptable compromise, negotiations hit a wall.”
The STJV accused Ubisoft management of offering a budget for salary increases that fell below inflation for the second consecutive year, alleging the company’s adherence to a purely arbitrary cost reduction policy.
“How do we correlate this contempt with our CEO’s exhortations to ‘gain agility and efficiency’?” they questioned. “How could we accept such a low level of increases when the company boasts of a second-quarter ‘well beyond [our] expectations’, while wanting to ‘pay tribute to the exceptional commitment of the teams’? This reward system seems very poorly balanced to us.”
The union further criticized Ubisoft’s decision to make employees bear the burden of increasing profits despite continued profitability. They deemed this practice “simply unacceptable” and called for strike action across all French entities belonging to the Ubisoft group on February 14th.
💯✊On a fini les comptes et…ce sont près de 700 salarié·es d’Ubisoft qui ont suivi la journée de grève nationale !
Paris, Montpellier, Annecy, Lyon, Bordeaux…
Bravo et merci à tout le monde pour cette mobilisation historique ! pic.twitter.com/MYcKMwXiRh— Syndicat des Travailleurs·ses du Jeu Vidéo (@stjv_fr) February 15, 2024
Following Wednesday’s strike, the STJV provided an update on social media, reporting that nearly 700 Ubisoft employees participated in the nationwide strike. They expressed gratitude for the significant turnout at the pickets, acknowledging the support from colleagues in other companies and students and emphasizing the unity found in collective struggle.
“The message to Ubisoft’s management is extremely clear, in a company where the CEO once strutted around claiming that ‘when a union comes to Ubisoft, I’ll leave,'” the STJV emphasized.
This week’s strike action adds to recent criticism leveled at another French studio by the STJV. In a report published the previous week, the union accused Banishers: Ghosts of Eden and Jusant developer Don’t Nod of mismanagement, highlighting concerns about the lack of time and long-term vision necessary for employee welfare in a studio where projects transition erratically.
The STJV’s concerns about employee mistreatment arise in a year already marked by significant challenges for workers across the games industry, with at least 6,000 layoffs announced since the beginning of 2024, compared to 10,500 job cuts in the entirety of last year.
