60 Game Workers Form First Ubisoft Union in North America

About 60 workers in Halifax, Nova Scotia have formed Ubisoft's first union in North America, reports the CBC (though its 17,000 employees include some unionized workforces in other parts of the world): T.J. Gillis, a senior server developer at Ubisoft Halifax, says he became increasingly concerned about the growth of artificial intelligence in the industry and after the closure of a Microsoft gaming studio in Halifax, Alpha Dog, in 2024. "We're seeing a ton of studios, especially larger studios, just letting people go with no unions or support, people were just being left to fend for themselves. Often times having to leave industry," said Gillis.

Gillis said he got into contact with CWA Canada to begin efforts to build a union with other colleagues... The union was formed six months after filing union certification and after 74 per cent of staff at Ubisoft Halifax voted to join CWA Canada... A spokesperson for Ubisoft said in a statement to CBC News that they "acknowledge the decision issued by the Nova Scotia Labour Board and reaffirm our commitment to maintaining full cooperation with the Board and union representatives."

Carmel Smyth is the president of CWA Canada and says she is already hearing from other employees at tech companies who want to follow Ubisoft Halifax's lead.

The only reason to form a union

[phantomfive]

The only reason to form a union is if your employer is mistreating you. Thus, I have to assume that Ubisoft was mistreating their employees in some way or another.

Re:

[DrMrLordX]

That may be true, but Ubisoft is in a bit of trouble. Everyone's jobs are on the line, and there's no guarantee that performance will equal job security. Are you familiar with the Tencent situation?

Re:

[ClickOnThis]

It is a very successful union indeed that can get a "no layoffs" clause in a collective agreement. Generally that just doesn't happen.

My guess is that the union wants to ensure that incumbents are protected as much as possible. But they won't be immune to layoffs.

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[thegarbz]

This is the USA so the answer is yes.

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[thegarbz]

I knew some drooler would post something like that. Halifax is in Canada, not part of the USA.

Not sure why stating the obvious makes someone a drooler. The USA is infamously the country in the west that has the worst employee protections in the world. Unions are *essential* in the USA for fair employment. The rest of the world has moved on from needing them.

By the way you point out Halifax as if this is some gotchya. Nova Scotia only has employee protections from dismissal for long term employees. These don't exist in the gaming world meaning the reason for unions is just as strong in America's Hat

Re:The only reason to form a union

[test321]

The only reason to form a union is if your employer is mistreating you.

The other reason is you want to prevent mistreatment to happen based on 1) observation that it is happening in other companies in the same industry, and 2) it is likely to happen in yours as well if no force is set to push backwards preventively.

Re: The only reason to form a union

[TuballoyThunder]

Unions historically almost provided training. Some still do, like plumbers and electricians. I always thought that a union providing training for programmers and administrators was a more effective solution than higher education for most positions.

Re:

[phantomfive]

I like the idea of an alternative to universities providing education.

If a union provides education to noobs, that is basically my union dues paying for their training. I don't see that as an easy sell.

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[jacks smirking reven]

My dad was in IBEW and local electricians union, growing up he'd often talk about how most weeks he had an apprentice with him to assist and shadow and learn. The apprentice wasn't always employed at the actual company most times, they were provided for and paid (or partially paid) via the union although usually they would get hired out once they "graduated".

Also the union had a pool of available members so if the company he was working for had a job that required extra work the company could get assistanc

Re:

[sabbede]

Yes, training and certification. However, I worry that the bureaucracy that comes with unions would increase the degree of siloing that occurs. I wouldn't want a situation where the union's employment boosting policies resulted in being required to have separate admins for networks, servers, cloud systems, and desktops, regardless of actual needs. Things get too siloed as-is.

It may be even worse for programming, as language preference will be determined by union training. You may think that's already

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[ClickOnThis]

This. I can see unions (or in general, trade organizations) playing a role in certifying workers. But training them in a comprehensive fashion could be too much of a distraction from their mission of providing representation for workers after they are done with training.

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[sabbede]

In this case, yes. I don't think that's an issue for the carpenters, for example, but that's a pretty different industry.

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[Cochonou]

Well you know, "crunch" is something in the videogame development industry, and is not limited to Ubisoft... It even has a wikipedia entry [wikipedia.org].
A topic more specific to Ubisoft is the continuous rise of Tencent as a shareholder.

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[fluffernutter]

It may be fun for awhile, but no way to live a life. Unless of course its your company and you are allowed to make your office into an arcade while cracking the whip at the workers.

And take the next step...

[sinkskinkshrieks]

Form a worker-owned co-op to do more-or-less the same work and keep more of the profit workers generate rather than handing control and profits to an idle, rent-seeking parasite class of do-nothing money hoarders.

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[AmiMoJo]

The problem is that it takes years to make a AAA game, which means you need millions to pay staff for that long until it comes out. And ideally enough cash that if your first game flops or needs a year of patches to get good, you can keep going.

You could make an non AAA game, some do have success with that. It's a crowded market though.

LOL sure

[argStyopa]

In other news, cabin staff on Titanic also successfully formed a union to demand fair treatment 0115 on April 15 1912.