Drawing on its years of experience as the majority union in the French video games industry, the STJV was able to draw up an assessment of the industry, which has become a corporate circus. We have drawn up an action plan so that we, the video game workers, can make lasting improvements to our industry.
To demand that the industry finally becomes mature and stable, for workers to benefit from dignified working conditions, and to have confidence in the future, the STJV is calling all workers and students to take part in a general strike of the video game industry on February the 13th, 2025.
We demand:
- Preservation of jobs, the cancellation of layoffs and the accountability of decision-makers who must first make sacrifices themselves when their companies face difficulties.
- Companies’ full transparency about their financial situation and economic health, so that workers can plan their future, and profit sharing with workers.
- Consideration for work-related health and personal life, through work reorganisation and the reduction of work hours.
- Direct participation of workers in decision-making at their companies in order to avoid management errors and control the proper use of private and public funding.
These demands are highly practical, and come in response to decades of corporate mismanagement, opacity and denial of workers’ suffering. For example, at the time this call is published, workers at Don’t Nod are on strike against a layoff plan caused by years of mismanagement, and unheeded workers’ alerts. Don’t hesitate to support their strike fund.
Although our bosses systematically ignore polite requests, workers can count on their numbers and the solidarity that binds them together. We need to organise everywhere. We encourage everyone to meet their union representatives to talk about the situation, to contact us, to organise actions and discussions in their own areas, and to go together to the rallies that will be organised on 13 February.
This call covers the STJV’s field of action in the private sector, and therefore applies to any person employed by a video game publishing, distribution, services and/or creation company – whatever their position or status and whatever their company’s area of activity (games, consoles, mobile, serious games, VR/AR, game engines, marketing services, streaming, derivative products, esports, online content creation, etc.) – as well as to all teachers working in private schools in video game-related courses. As this is a national strike call, no action is necessary to go on strike: just don’t go to work.
If you want to reuse our GG25 visuals, we produced a press kit: https://cloud.stjv.fr/s/FBSYLQ7QZcqMLcx
