Rockstar Workers In The UK Will Hold A Union Vote Just As GTA 6 Is Released

Most gamers may be focused on the countdown to the release of Grand Theft Auto 6 on November 19, but there will also be a fair bit of drama unfolding behind the scenes at developer Rockstar Games over the coming weeks. According to a social media post from Bloomberg‘s Jason Schreier, workers at Rockstar’s UK offices are reportedly scheduled to vote on recognizing their branch of the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain (IWUGB) from November 12 to November 26. If the employee vote is a success, the Rockstar Game Workers Union would become the largest recognized union in the UK’s game industry.

Adding another layer to the combined cultural and corporate hype around late November, an employment tribunal between Rockstar and the IWUGB that was scheduled to end earlier in October has also been extended. That case is now expected to have closing arguments delivered on November 17 or 18, just before the GTA 6 launch. The IWUGB brought a complaint against Rockstar after the game developer laid off more than 30 employees in October 2025, most of whom were either union members or engaged in organizing efforts. The move raised alarms that the studio was engaged in union-busting, although the company claimed the employees were let go due to misconduct related to sharing confidential information. The Rockstar Game Workers Union, covering people at all of the company’s offices across the UK, was announced in May 2026.

In a feature piece earlier this month that interviewed several people from Rockstar, Schreier reported that the unionizing workers who remained have been in ongoing discussion with the company’s management in the intervening months. “We go where the team goes,” Jennifer Kolbe, head of publishing at Rockstar, told Schreier. “So if they want a union, they will have a union.”