The Rockstar Game Workers Union has members in the developer’s UK offices.
Workers at Rockstar Games have announced the formation of the Rockstar Game Workers Union, the Grand Theft Auto developer’s first labor union. According to an explanatory video released alongside the announcement, the new union represents workers in Edinburgh, London, Leeds, Lincoln and Dundee, covering all of Rockstar’s offices in the UK.
The new organization is a subsidiary of the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain (IWGB), and members say they are focusing on issues such as “pay transparency, flexible working and ending the crisis”. More immediately, they are also responding to the conflict that motivated the union’s current support: the sudden firing of 31 union members in October 2026. At the time, the IWGB called the decision “the most blatant and brutal act of union busting in the history of the games industry”, while Rockstar said the workers had been let down for “gross misconduct” while sharing confidential information. If you believe Rockstar, it was just a coincidence that the employees who were let go were also members of a union that organized the Discord channel.
As a result of the firing, protests were held in front of several Rockstar studios and the IWGB later filed a legal claim against the developer for what it considered unfair dismissal of its employees. Laid-off workers were refused interim pay by a UK employment tribunal in January 2026, but the case has yet to be fully adjudicated in court. One of the reasons the Rockstar Game Workers Union decided to go public now is to help raise money for their legal defense.
The timing couldn’t be better than this. All eyes are currently on Rockstar Games and its owner 2K due to the highly anticipated launch of grand theft auto vi in November. Until the game is delayed again, some attention will also be on the Rockstar Game Workers Union.
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