Rockstar UK staff set union vote for mid-November around GTA 6 launch

UK developers at Rockstar Games will vote on union recognition from November 12 to November 26, the Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB) says.¹² The ballot runs through the planned November 19 launch of Grand Theft Auto 6.³

If staff vote yes, “the Rockstar Game Workers Union will become the biggest recognised union in the UK games sector,” the IWGB says.¹ That would make it the largest recognized union at a UK video game company.²

Staff organizing the union have been meeting with Rockstar management since July to work out a recognition deal. The deal would give employees a say on pay and bonuses, overtime, redundancies, flexible working, and generative AI policies.² Workers had asked Rockstar to recognize the union voluntarily before the game came out. The question is going to a vote instead.²

The vote also lands as an employment tribunal wraps up. It concerns the firing of 31 people involved in early union efforts last October. Union members allege the dismissals were union busting. Rockstar says the 31 were let go for “gross misconduct, and for no other reason,” and that they were fired for discussing company secrets in an outside channel.² Closing submissions are expected on November 17 and 18.²

Rockstar staff first sought IWGB recognition in June, after those firings, and aimed to finish before the November release.⁴ A yes vote would make Rockstar the second UK games studio with a recognized union, after ZA/UM agreed recognition in October 2025.⁴ Rockstar has said that claims linking the dismissals to union membership or activity are entirely false and misleading.⁴

Our read: The union vote, the tribunal’s closing arguments and Grand Theft Auto 6’s launch all fall inside the same two weeks. For a studio judged on what it ships next, that overlap matters most, and the result of the vote will arrive while the launch is still fresh.

Footnotes

1. The Verge, “Rockstar workers will vote on union recognition right around GTA VI’s launch.”. Retrieved October 27, 2026. ↩ ↩²

2. Kotaku, “Rockstar Games Devs In The UK Will Hold A Union Vote During The Launch Of GTA 6”. Retrieved October 27, 2026. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

3. PC Gamer, “Rockstar will hold union vote right on top of Grand Theft Auto 6 release”. Retrieved October 27, 2026. ↩

4. The Guardian, “Grand Theft Auto workers seek union recognition after mass firings”. Retrieved October 27, 2026. ↩ ↩² ↩³