Over 700 employees took part in an organised day of protest across Ubisoft offices in France after the recent wage negotiation breakdown.
French game workers union STJV (Syndicat des Travailleurs et Travailleuses du Jeu Vidéo) organised a strike against three different Ubisoft offices on February 14, 2024. The strike was organised as a response to the recent breakdown in the annual salary negotiations at Ubisoft.
The strike took place across the cities of Paris, Montpellier, Annecy, Lyon, and Bordeaux. The invitation for the strike was made by the organisation, where they invited workers to come and protest at the picket lines they had set up.
The union had a very straightforward point of contention with Ubisoft:
"Despite the union's efforts to find an acceptable compromise, negotiations hit a wall," the union said in its statement. "In order to hit arbitrary cost reductions targets, management offered a budget dedicated to raises that would be lower than inflation for the second year in a row."
The union representatives gave an interview with French publication Gamekult, to clarify the reasoning behind the strike as well as their demands. The original interview is in French, but we'll try to go over the main points being made.
"In order to hit arbitrary cost reductions targets, management offered a budget dedicated to raises that would be lower than inflation for the second year in a row." said the representatives. This is coupled with the fact that Ubisoft's CEO, Yves Guillemot, had reported that results were "well above expectations".
Ubisoft has taken up a strategy which revolves around cost-reduction of an estimated €200 million over the next two years. This includes production costs, such as developer wages. The reason for the protest is to contest this strategy, as the union believes that "the right way to make money is to make video games in the best possible conditions so they can be of the right quality.".
They further added to this, "The pickets were very well attended, and we're particularly grateful to colleagues from other companies and students who came out to lend their support, proving that the struggle will always bring us together".
In a year where we've already faced over 6000 layoffs in the video game industry compared to last year's 10000, we're likely to see many similar protests worldwide as developers try to protect their jobs and ask for better treatment.