Rockstar employees will hold a vote on union recognition over a two-week span in November that will perfectly bracket the studio’s launch of the console version of Grand Theft Auto 6. If the vote carries in favor of the union, the IWGB Rockstar Game Workers Union will become the biggest game industry union in the UK, giving employees a voice on matters including pay and bonuses, overtime, redundancies, flexible working arrangements, and generative AI policies.
The terms of the recognition deal have been under negotiation between the union and Rockstar management since July, but unionization efforts have been underway for much longer. The process came under intense scrutiny in October 2025 when the studio fired 31 employees in what the IWGB claimed was “the most brazen act of union busting the games industry has ever seen.” Rockstar alleged that the fired employees were leaking GTA 6 information in a public Discord; the matter is now before an employment tribunal in Scotland.
“This November, we have the chance to make gaming history not once but twice. As all our hard work, skill and creativity are experienced by GTA VI players for the first time, our voices will now be heard for the first time too,” Rockstar Game Workers Union committee member Shanti Easton-Steel said.
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“For me, this vote comes down to ensuring employees at Rockstar get honesty and openness surrounding the decisions that affect them. When management choices are kept hidden, we can’t properly address issues like the gender pay gap, the uneven and ever-changing policies on overtime pay, or the concerns many co-workers hold around job security post-release. This is our moment to secure a window onto the decisions that shape our lives, and a seat at the table to improve them. I’m immensely proud of the games Rockstar gives its fans—I want to be equally proud of the voice Rockstar gives its staff.”
We’re proud to share that in a few weeks’ time, Rockstar staff will get to have their own say over union recognition. From pay and pensions to parental leave and overtime, this recognition agreement is a chance for workers to be involved in the decisions that shape their lives.
— @rsgworkersunion.bsky.social (@rsgworkersunion.bsky.social.bsky.social) 2026-10-27T22:22:57.195Z
“For anyone who cares about the games industry or the people who keep it running, this vote is just as historic as the game release. But for workers at Rockstar, it is so much more personal: it is fundamentally a choice about whether you get to have a say in how your day-to-day life is organised,” IWGB Union president Alex Marshall added.
The vote to recognize the union will run November 12-26, the week leading up, and then the week after, GTA 6’s November 19 launch on consoles. Rockstar hasn’t commented on the looming vote, but Rockstar head of publishing Jennifer Kolbe indicated in Bloomberg’s recent look at the making of GTA that the studio won’t fight it: “We go where the team goes. So if they want a union, they will have a union.”
