Rockstar UK staff to vote on union recognition around GTA 6 launch

Employees at Rockstar Games in the UK will vote on recognizing the IWGB Rockstar Game Workers Union from November 12 to November 26, according to a press release from the Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB). The window opens a week before Grand Theft Auto 6 launches on consoles on November 19 and closes a week after.

If the vote passes, the union would become the largest recognized union in the UK games industry, the IWGB says. The recognition deal, which the press release describes as agreed between workers and management, would give staff a say over pay and bonuses, overtime, redundancies, flexible working arrangements and generative AI policies. PC Gamer reports that negotiations between the union and Rockstar management have run since July. Engadget says the union, which covers all of Rockstar’s UK offices, was announced in May 2026.

Rockstar has not commented on the vote, per PC Gamer. Jennifer Kolbe, the company’s head of publishing, told Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier recently: “We go where the team goes. So if they want a union, they will have a union.”

Union committee member Shanti Easton-Steel said the vote is about honesty and openness in management decisions. She named the gender pay gap, inconsistent overtime pay policies and job security after release as concerns that are hard to address when decisions are kept hidden. IWGB president Alex Marshall called the vote “just as historic as the game release.”

The tribunal and the firings

The vote lands alongside a legal case. In October 2025 Rockstar fired 31 employees, most of whom Engadget says were union members or involved in organizing. The IWGB called the dismissals “the most brazen act of union busting the games industry has ever seen.” Rockstar said the workers were let go for misconduct tied to sharing confidential information; PC Gamer adds that the company alleged they were leaking GTA 6 details in a public Discord. GamesRadar+ notes that Rockstar has repeatedly denied union-busting claims.

The employment tribunal, which PC Gamer says is being heard in Scotland, was originally due to finish earlier in October but was extended. Engadget and Rock Paper Shotgun report closing arguments are now expected on November 17 or 18, days before launch. Rock Paper Shotgun notes that a ruling on whether Rockstar broke employment law will take longer.

Why it matters

Rockstar is the studio behind one of the most anticipated games in the industry, and the vote puts its working conditions in view at the moment that game ships. GamesRadar+ points to the studio’s documented history of crunch and to claims from Rockstar developers that it is “built into” contracts and requires employees to “opt out.” Overtime is one of the topics the recognition deal would cover.

GamesRadar+ also places the vote within a wider push for unions in games, noting that Dungeons & Dragons and Magic: The Gathering developers unionized this month. According to GamesRadar+, pre-loading of GTA 6 on PS5 and Xbox Series X begins a week before launch, the same day voting opens.

What we don’t know yet

The outcome of the vote and the tribunal’s eventual decision are both open. Rockstar has not publicly responded to the vote itself, and the sources do not say how many employees are eligible to take part.