Renewal of the call until 11 February 2023
After the huge success of the day of action on 31 January, which was even bigger than the one on 19 January, already a record in our industry, the government has already repeated that it does not want to reconsider its reform project. Worse still, on 1 February, a cut in the duration of unemployment rights came into force. It will make many people poorer and make it more difficult to qualify for a full pension, adding to the horror of the reform project.
n order to maintain the pressure and to keep on mobilising video game workers, on February 1st the STJV decided to renew this call to strike until Saturday February 11th 2023 included.
In particular, the STJV is calling on workers to strike and demonstrate on Tuesday 7 February and Saturday 11 February across France, and to mobilise workers in companies for these dates. The STJV will be officially present at several demonstrations for these two dates.
The beginning of the movement against the pension reform, on 19 January, has been impressive everywhere in France, including in the video game industry. On the STJV side alone, at the time of publication of this appeal, we already counted nearly 250 people marching with the STJV and on strike, in more than 30 different video game companies (figures incomplete, counting still in progress).
The government responded to thursday’s strikes with its usual contempt, expressing its will to continue while ignoring the massive unpopularity of its reform. And this despite the fact the president of the Conseil d’Orientation des Retraites confirmed what unions have been explaining for weeks: this reform is a political choice, in no way a necessity.
For the government does not intend to change its policy of reducing taxes on companies and increasing public funding to them without any compensation. And in order to do so, it prefers to make workers pay, especially those who started working early, the most precarious and those whose jobs are not recognised as strenuous.
Our demands do not change either: rather than working more, we demand to work less: each week, by introducing the 4-day / 28-hour working week, and throughout our lives by restoring retirement at 60.
To defeat this reform and win better rights, we need to build a massive and long-term movement, all of us together: by continuing to strike, to join demonstrations, to discuss with our colleagues, to join unions…
The Syndicat des Travailleurs et Travailleuses du Jeu Vidéo is therefore calling for a strike from 31 January to 3 February included. We call on workers, unemployed people, pensioners and students in video games to mobilise at companies, general assemblies and demonstrations throughout France. The STJV will be officially present at several demonstrations.
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 come to work.
Do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions.