French Ubisoft workers stage Valentine’s Day strike for fair pay
14.02.24
Ubisoft workers in France don’t just want roses for Valentine’s Day. They want bread too.
In Annecy, Bordeaux, Lyon, Montpellier and Paris, employees of the video game giant and its subsidiaries went on strike on 14 February after mandatory salary negotiations with the Video Game Workers Union (STJV), Solidaires Informatique and CFE-CGC hit a wall.
Announcing the strike, UNI affiliate STJV says: “The reduction in our standard of living, for Ubisoft leaders, is not a bug, it is a feature. That a company that continues to make profits, despite multi-deficient management, decides to make employees pay to increase its profits is simply unacceptable.”
The workers say that Ubisoft offered a pay rise below the inflation mark even though the Assassin’s Creed maker is enjoying returns “well beyond [the company’s] expectations.”
“The strikes at Ubisoft are part of a global trend of video game workers wanting recognition for the value of their labour. They are rejecting a crunch culture that strains their personal lives and squeezes their salaries,” said UNI Global Union’s Head of the Information, Communications, Tech and Related Services sector Benjamin Parton. “Ubisoft France workers are seeing incredible solidarity in their workplaces, but more than that, tech and video game workers from around the world are sending love and support this Valentine’s Day.”
