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CD Projekt staff form union after layoffs - and want everybody in the industry to join
09.10.2023 - 12:27 / rockpapershotgun.com / Projekt Red
There's a side mission in Cyberpunk 2077 that involves abducting a notorious union-breaker. One wonders if any of the people who worked on that have joined the union founded by CD Projekt RED employees this month. The union is part of the larger Polish worker's organisation OZZ Inicjatywa Pracownicza, and comes in response to CD Projekt's firing around 100 employees in July due to "overstaffing". Its membership is anonymous and open to people in the industry who aren't employed by the Witcher and Cyberpunk studio, but are thinking about forming a union in their own workplace.
"We started talking about unionizing after the 2023 wave of layoffs when 9% of Reds (that is roughly 100 people) were let go," reads an official FAQ from the group. "This event created a tremendous amount of stress and insecurity, affecting our mental health and leading to the creation of this union in response. Having a union means having more security, transparency, better protection, and a stronger voice in times of crisis."
The statement continues that "unionizing is a way for us to preserve the industry's potential" given that gamedev working conditions "tend to burn creatives early and make them switch industries". The organisers argue that "trade unions are especially important for gamedev, as most people come here out of passion, and passion can be easily exploited, leading to long working hours, lower pay, and eventually, burning out. A union is meant to minimize all of the above, letting your passion grow and thrive, instead of using it as fuel."
The CD Projekt union's immediate plan is to establish proper internal and external communication channels, and build up its numbers so as to create a support system for workers and acquire "a strong negotiation position" during discussions with CD Projekt's management. The organisers have "already reached out to the board and want to establish a dialogue between us and them that is stable and reliable".
"We also want to increase employment stability," the statement goes on. "Unionization guarantees us the ability to negotiate the terms of mass layoffs as well as in individual cases. In the long run, we also want our voice as employees to be heard more often and more clearly in matters of working conditions."
The union is currently in "what is effectively a trial period" - it has been legally established, but doesn't have governing bodies in place. The organisers hope to create the latter structures by way of a larger statutory meeting in mid-December 2023.
"We've also established contact with a group of union activists in other game dev companies and we joined forces to cooperate and establish a better industry and job market for all of us," the statement says.
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