"Delay game, disappoint fans, all in a week's work for Rockstar": Labor group issues legal claims against GTA 6 dev Rockstar for "simple union busting" after firing 31 staff

The Independent Workers' union of Great Britain (IWGB) has issued legal claims against GTA 6 developer Rockstar after the recent firing of 31 employees for what parent company Take-Two called "gross misconduct." Rockstar, for its part, said the impacted employees had been "distributing and discussing confidential information in a public forum." Really, claims the IWGB, Rockstar was trying to crush a fledgling union before one of the biggest video game launches in history.

"What we've seen here is plain and simple union busting," IWGB president Alex Marshall says in a November 12 statement revealing the organization's legal action against Rockstar. "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."

According to an October Bloomberg report, the 31 impacted Rockstar employees were all members of the same private Discord group dedicated to discussing unionization. At the time, Take-Two company spokesperson Alan Lewis told GamesRadar+, "Rockstar Games terminated a small number of individuals for gross misconduct, and for no other reason. As always, we fully support Rockstar's ambitions and approach."

In response to a follow-up question now asking for Take-Two's response to the IWGB's legal claims, Lewis told us, "We do not have any comments beyond the statements that both T2 and Rockstar Games issued over the last two weeks on the matter." The IWGB has not yet responded to a request for comment.

The organization, however, shares some additional thoughts on Rockstar in a November 6 post on Twitter: "Fire 31 staff for organising a union, realise you've fucked up, put out a misleading statement about leaks even though there haven't been leaks, delay game, disappoint fans.

"All in a week's work for Rockstar."

Marshall summarizes the sentiment in his official statement, writing, "We will not be intimidated."

Union leader says fired GTA 6 devs weren't leaking Rockstar secrets, they were talking about working conditions on a private Discord: "They should be legally protected to do that."