The STJV has called for a general strike in the video game industry in France on February 13, 2025. This article addresses a few common questions and explains why we have chosen to go on strike.

Why a strike and not some other action?

Employers have absolute power in the workplace. In practice, the law gives them the right to reject every demand, within a certain framework and as long as they follow the legal procedures. Furthermore, employees are subject to rules laid down by companies, which can punish them for many things, effectively preventing them from speaking out.

For years now, the STJV and other unions active in the industry have been making regular demands to employers to improve the industry and its working conditions. So far, employers have consistently rejected these demands out of hand, without even bothering to comply with the law. As of today, we have only obtained improvements when our demands were backed up by strike action.

The STJV is not calling for a strike for the sake of it, or for the sake of folklore, but because striking is the only genuinely legal and protected way of expressing our discontent and making demands of our bosses, and it works.

A strike is a total stoppage of work for a given period, a way of refusing to continue producing value for our bosses until they agree to our demands.

Why only one day?

For a strike to work reliably in a company, it is necessary to strike over the long term so that the strike costs the company more than the demands made by workers.

The strike on February 13 is not aimed at a specific company but at all companies in the industry. The purpose of the general strike on February 13 is to warn of the mortal danger hanging over the video game industry in France, and to demand the changes necessary to avoid this.

We are therefore calling for a single day of national strike action to come together and demonstrate the will of all workers, past, present and future, not to let our industry die without reaction.

We leave it to the workers to transform this national movement into local actions wherever necessary to defend their rights. The STJV is ready to provide support.

Who can participate?

For salaried workers, the call covers companies involved in publishing, distribution, services and/or creation for video games, whatever the company’s field of activity (games, consoles, mobile, serious games, VR/AR, game engines, marketing services, streaming, derivative products, esports, online content creation, etc.), as well as all teachers working in private education linked to video games.

But everyone can take part in the strike, not just salaried workers. Because workers are all the people who depend, depended or will depend on work to live, not just salaried workers.

Student ? You can come and defend your future working conditions and make sure you will have a job when you graduate, and after.

Unemployed ? Let’s improve the industry so that you can have the possibility of finding a job quickly, under good conditions, and to ensure that you can keep it for as long as you want.

Freelancer as a form of undeclared work ? We must fight to ensure that the industry no longer resorts to this illegal practice and that you regain your rights as an employee.

Voluntary freelancer ? If nothing changes and the industry collapses, you will no longer have enough customers to make a living.

Former worker of the video game industry, whether by choice or necessity ? Come and support the industry you left so that the problems you encountered there don’t happen again.

Gamer ? At the current rate, if nothing changes, the quality of games will only deteriorate.

Supporter outside of the video game industry ? Solidarity between workers is what enables everyone to gain new rights. The STJV is also fighting to get video game workers to support the fights in other industries.

How to get involved?

We have a guide to striking as an employee in a private company: The right to strike in private companies – STJV

Generally speaking, the most important thing is to attend the rallies and events that will be organised in your area on February 13. We will organise a count of participants at the strike and rallies to the best of our ability.

If you don’t know if something is being organised where you live, don’t hesitate to ask!

If nothing is planned in your area yet, try to organise something! Even getting together with a few workers for a coffee on February 13 is an important action. Let’s take advantage of this day to get together, discuss our work and what we could do to improve it.

Why now?

As mentioned earlier, workers have been trying for years to improve video game production and working conditions, and have been facing blockages. All these years, workers have anticipated all the problems encountered, have warned their management, and have even proposed realistic solutions to avoid them.

Today, the video game industry is in a critical state, threatening not only our jobs but the existence of the industry itself. We know there are still more disasters to come, to which executives are turning a blind eye. We cannot wait until the last second, on the brink of the abyss, to take action.

We are calling for a strike now as a means to count ourselves among workers, to acknowledge that we are not alone, and to send a strong message of unity, not only to our bosses but also to ourselves. Worker unity is the only force that will bring about the necessary changes.

We will discuss our demands in future articles.