Rockstar’s Union Vote Runs Straight Through GTA 6’s Launch

Drama

30 October 2026 13:02

UK Union attempt by Rockstar employees.

The Rockstar Game Workers Union announced it on 27 October. UK staff did already vote anonymously online between 12 and 26 November on whether Rockstar formally recognises the IWGB branch.

This will cover 1,600 workers across all roles at the UK studios, in Edinburgh, Dundee, Lincoln, Leeds and London. Rockstar employs around 4,700 people across 12 locations globally.

The vote will create the largest recognised union in the UK games industry. The closest American comparison is Blizzard’s roughly 1,900 members.

What it would cover

The coverage is collective bargaining over pay and bonuses, overtime, redundancies, flexible working, and generative AI policies.

The AI bit is interesting. Blizzard’s contract, ratified in September, requires Microsoft to bargain before deploying AI that materially affects union work. Rockstar’s would be the UK equivalent.

Not a surprise attack

The recognition agreement was negotiated. Workers and management agreed its terms over months of discussions beginning in July, after a formal recognition request in June.

Head of publishing Jennifer Kolbe told Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier that if the team wants a union, it will have one.

Organising at Rockstar goes back to 2019. The RGWU was announced in May.

The other November

The submissions will be scheduled for 17 and 18 November, two days before GTA 6 arrives and midway through voting. The hearing was originally expected to conclude in early October.

President Alex Marshall having called them “the most blatant and ruthless act of union busting in the history of the games industry.” Rockstar says the workers were dismissed for breaching confidentiality rules involving a Discord server, and denies the claims.

Nothing has been decided.