Rockstar’s UK Staff Are Voting on a Union, and the Result Lands a Week After GTA 6

More than 1,600 Rockstar staff in the UK are voting on whether the company should recognise a union. The ballot covers everyone below director level in Edinburgh, Dundee, Lincoln, Leeds and the other UK offices, by the union’s count as reported by Jason Schreier. It follows four months of meetings between staff and management.

A yes would make the Rockstar Game Workers Union, part of the IWGB, the largest recognised union in UK games. Recognition, in the union’s words, would “provide a framework for workers to negotiate over pay, including overtime and bonuses, as well as leave and pensions, and to have consultation rights over HR policies and the use of AI”. Overtime is the familiar item on that list for anyone who read our report on Rockstar’s overtime opt-out, and AI is the new one.

The union’s case comes from inside the building. Nestor Uriarte is an animation programmer at Rockstar and a union rep, and his statement ties the vote to the game itself.

“I am incredibly proud of the work we’ve put into making this game. I’m also proud of the union we’ve built here. For me, those two things are connected. We care deeply about the games we make and we want to make sure we can continue doing that work in an environment where we’re respected, have a meaningful say over our conditions and can feel secure about our futures.”

Rockstar’s reply ran to two sentences. “We’re proud of our team, the culture we’ve built, and the game we’ve created. That’s all we have to say while we prepare to launch GTA VI,” a spokesperson said. Head of publishing Jennifer Kolbe was warmer in Bloomberg Businessweek’s inside look at the studio, calling the talks “productive” and “positive” and adding: “We go where the team goes. So if they want a union, they will have a union.” Take-Two chief executive Strauss Zelnick told Schreier the aim was that “everyone can make an informed choice without pressure from anyone”, through “a full, fair, and respectful process”.

Schreier’s own video on the vote adds the longer view. Early organiser Rachel Crawford says in it: “In order to have deeper changes that are maybe not things management wants to change, you need a broader base, need power, and for that you need a union.” Co-founder Jamie King, for his part, told him the studio’s old seven-day weeks were “unsustainable”.

The vote does not happen in a vacuum. Rockstar dismissed 34 people in October 2025, 31 in the UK and three in Canada, saying confidential information had been shared on Discord. Twenty-three of them are at the Glasgow employment tribunal claiming they were unfairly dismissed for union activity, and that case is still unresolved.