After 3 massive days of mobilisation, the movement against the pensions reform continues, with a day of action coming up on Saturday 11 February. The government remains steadfast in its position and intends to mock the millions of strikers who have clearly expressed their opposition to this project.

Confronted with their lies, going so far as to claim that this reform could be beneficial for the poor and for women, our demands will not change. 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 the pensions reform project and win better rights, we must continue to mobilise massively, all of us together, by continuing to strike. Not only to be able to demonstrate, but also and above all to reaffirm the place of workers in the economy: it is they who produce all economic value.

Each day of strike action that is followed en masse inflicts significant economic losses to employers and the upper classes, and erodes their support for the reform project supported by the government. These losses are the tool that will enable us to bring down those who want to impoverish and exploit us later and later in our lives.

The Syndicat des Travailleurs et Travailleuses du Jeu Vidéo is therefore calling for a strike on Thursday 16 February. 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.

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.

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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.

This call has been written by members of the STJV working at Ubisoft companies in France, and is published in common with our comrades from Solidaires Informatique.

Video games workers are not consumables that one throws away through so-called « natural attrition », like they’re a foreign body.

While we can testify to the absurdity of our games’ production processes, and the way our colleagues and comrades are treated as a burden that the company seeks to offload, Ubisoft’s management keeps ignoring and questioning our work, while conveniently dismissing the mere possibility that failures and mishaps could be on their side.

We will not abandon our colleagues and comrades. And we will no longer let our employer denigrate our work while at the same time absolving itself of any responsibility when calling us to « give the best of ourselves » to fix its own mistakes.

The STJV is calling workers from all French entities of the Ubisoft group to strike on Friday, January 27th from 2PM to 6PM.

We demand immediately :

• Retention instead of attrition: we want to open salary negotiations in order to reach at least inflation-level collective raises, independantly from individual raises.
• For our CEO to stop burrying his head in the sand, like when his HR teams were stonewalling employee representatives on the harassment that was rampant within the company.
• Since « the ball is in our court », give us the rackets to play: let company employees choose our games’ content, and let us do our jobs.

If you have any questions about participating in the strike, please do not hesitate to get in touch with one of our sections at Ubisoft Paris, Montpellier or Annecy.

During the movement against a planned pension reform in 2019/2020, the STJV joined the strike and ended up, after several weeks, using the inter-union strike fund held by the CGT Info’com (which we thank again warmly) to provide compensation to its members who needed it. For the 2023 movement, we plan to get organised earlier and create our own internal strike fund.

What is it for?

Strike hours and days are not paid. This restricts the number of people who can join strike movements and, for those who can afford it, it can quickly represent a significant financial cost.

To limit these problems and allow workers to mobilise widely, we appeal to solidarity and collective action by creating strike funds, which are distributed among strikers who need it the most.

How can I donate?

The STJV’s strike fund is constituted in part by money from an internal strike budget, fed by a small part of the members’ dues, but it remains mainly dependent on donations.

To contribute to the STJV’s strike fund, all you have to do is make a transfer to the STJV’s account dedicated to strike funds, the details of which are as follows:
IBAN : FR76 1027 8060 3100 0207 2930 259
BIC : CMCIFR2A

To simplify tracking and identification of donations to the strike fund, please remember to mention “caisse de grève” in the description of your transfer.

You can also give through the Caisse de solidarité here: https://caisse-solidarite.fr/c/stjv/

We will regularly make public updates on the amount of the strike fund, and its distribution.

How does it work?

At regular intervals throughout the strike movement, the STJV will survey strikers internally and in companies where it has union sections, in order to assess compensation needs, and collect the information necessary to make these compensations.

After each survey, the declared strikers are invited to decide collectively and democratically on the distribution of the available funds, taking into account the information at their disposal, everyone’s own needs and the future of the movement.

What do we do with the remaining funds, if there are any at the end?

The same way, if there is a surplus in the strike fund, members of the STJV decide collectively what to do with it: transfer all or part of it to other strike funds, to the STJV internal strike budget for future movements, to charities, etc.

In an effort to ensure transparency, these decisions will be made public.

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Redistribution for the 19 to 26 January period

On 8 February, the STJV strikes fund had 6626 €. For the 19 to 26 January strike, an assembly of striking workers redistributed 1280 € to people who requested compensation. The 5346 € left will be kept in the fund for the future developments of the movement.

Striking workers will meet again in early March to allocate the strike fund for the 31 January to 28 February period.

Redistribution for the 31 January to 16 February period

On 28 February, the STJV strikes fund had 5946 €. For the 31 January to 16 February strike, an assembly of striking workers redistributed 5800 € to people who requested compensation. The 146 € left will be kept in the fund for the future developments of the movement.

Striking workers will meet again in late March to allocate the strike fund for the 1st to 31st March period.

Redistribution for the 7 to 31 March period

On 7 Apris, the STJV strikes fund had 13 501 €. For the 7 to 31 March strike, an assembly of striking workers redistributed 14 250 € to people who requested compensation. The missing 749 € will be donated by the union.

Striking workers will meet again in early May to allocate the strike fund for the 1st to 30 April period.

On 10 January 2023, the government revealed its plan to raise the legal retirement age to 64, with an accelerated increase in the minimum working period.

This reform would hit all workers hard, especially those who started working early, the most precarious, whose life expectancy is lower than the rest of the population, and those whose jobs are not recognised as strenuous. It would worsen the precariousness of those who are no longer employed before their retirement, and would reinforce gender inequalities.

The current pension system is not at risk financially. Nothing justifies such a brutal reform.

Its actual motive is the government’s stubborn refusal to tax companies, and on the contrary to maintain its policy of reducing these taxes and handing out public money with nothing in return: subsidies to companies represent the largest item of state expenditure, one third of the French budget.

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.

The Syndicat des Travailleurs et Travailleuses du Jeu Vidéo is joining the labour movement by calling for a strike from 19 to 26 January 2023. We call workers, unemployed people, pensioners and students in video games to mobilise in their companies, at general assemblies and in the demonstrations that will take place across France. The STJV will be officially present in several of these demonstrations.

This call covers the STJV’s field of action in the private sector, and therefore applies to any person employed by a publishing, distribution, services and/or creation company for video games, 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, spin-off products, esport, online content creation, etc.), as well as to all teachers working in private schools on video game-related courses.

For all these people, and since this is a national call to strike, no action is necessary to go on strike: you just have to not come to work on the day you want to strike.

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions.

We were on strike on September 29:

• Against the governmental policy of welfare cuts and general impoverishment of the population, and in particular making the Active Solidarity Income (RSA) dependent on the completion of working hours, the counter-reform project of pensions, and the serious endangerment of social benefits like unemployment insurance.
• To force companies to put in place long-term measures against the impoverishment of workers, such as automatic wage increases above inflation and the transition of precarious workers to permanent contracts.
• For a redistribution of the wealth accumulated by the upper classes, especially since the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis, going against the policies of tax cuts and credits granted to companies, and especially in the video game industry, an industry that has seen a jump in sales.
• For the implementation of our proposals to make work fairer and more democratic, both in our industry and in all others, such as the reduction of working time to 4 days, a basic measure to fight against unemployment and work-related illnesses.

FOR THE TRANSITION TO A 4-DAY/28-HOUR WORKING WEEK

FOR AN AUTOMATIC WAGE INCREASE ABOVE INFLATION

These demands are still valid and worth fighting for. But, now that a movement is building up in various industries across France to effectively demand a sharing of the wealth, the state is responding harshly by going so far as to challenge the (constitutional!) right to strike by illegally requisitioning workers.

The Syndicat des Travailleurs et Travailleuses du Jeu Vidéo (STJV) is joining the unions’ mobilisation by calling for a strike on October 18, 2022, and calls on workers, unemployed people, pensioners and students of the video game industry to mobilise in their companies, in general assemblies and in the demonstrations that will take place throughout France. The STJV will be officially present in several demonstrations in France.

This call covers the STJV’s field of action in the private sector, and therefore applies to any person employed by a company that publishes, distributes, provides services and/or creates video games or video game equipment, whatever their position or status and whatever the type of production of their company (console, PC, mobile, serious games, VR/AR experiences, game engines, marketing services, game consoles, streaming, etc. ), as well as all the teachers working in private schools in courses related to video game production. For all these people, and since this is a national call to strike, no action is necessary to go on strike: you just have to not come to work on the day you want to strike.

Do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions.

After last spring’s elections, new reforms further undermining social rights were announced. Meanwhile, inflation continues to soar, forests continue to burn, temperatures continue to rise. At a time when we fear upcoming food shortages, the government’s only aim is to continue to increase inequalities.

Among other things, it proposes :

• the generalisation of forced labour by making the Revenu de Solidarité Active (RSA) subject to the completion of work hours.
• the impoverishment of retirees with the revival of the pensions reform. If it does not raise the retirement age to 65 anymore, this is only a PR move, as other measures will drag pensions down no matter what.
• threatening social benefits such as unemployment insurance.

Despite making successive promises to fight against homelessness, then against sexism and now for the environment, the French government is satisfied with public communication and refuses, since it is its policy, to take concrete action.

The years ahead appear to be a continuation of previous policies, in favour of the richest, against the poor and against all marginalised people.

If the French economy has not collapsed despite the crisis we have been going through since 2020, it is only, as everywhere in the world, thanks to the dedication and efforts of millions of workers. These people, who are truly essential in our society, are still poorly treated and poorly paid, even before their rights are slashed any further. If large French companies were able to generate 44 billion euros in dividends alone in the 2nd quarter of 2022, it is only because of the value created by workers. This reality also applies to the video game industry.

In addition to increasing wages above inflation and introducing the 4-day week, both minimum measures to minimise the mess and actually reduce unemployment, we demand the implementation of our proposals to make work fairer, both in our industry and in all others.

The Syndicat des Travailleurs et Travailleuses du Jeu Vidéo (STJV) is joining the labour movement by calling for strike actions on September 29, 2022, and calls on video game workers, unemployed people, retirees and students to organise themselves in their companies, in general assemblies and in the demonstrations that will take place throughout France. The STJV will be officially present in several demonstrations across France.

This call covers the STJV’s field of action in the private sector, and therefore applies to any person employed by a company that publishes, distributes, provides services and/or creates video games or video game equipment, whatever their position or status and whatever the type of production of their company (console, PC, mobile, serious games, VR/AR experiences, game engines, marketing services, game consoles, streaming, etc. ), as well as all the teachers working in private schools in courses related to video game production. For all these people, and since this is a national call to strike, no action is necessary to go on strike: you just have to not come to work on the day you want to strike.

Do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions.

Emmanuel Macron has been re-elected president. While we can be happy that the most immediate fascist threat has been averted, the losers of this election and its campaign are easily identified: all the oppressed and the exploited. For them, 5 more years under Macron will increase their distress and anger, and they may not have the opportunity to sit on their rights again until the next election.

Likewise, we also know its winners: employers, tax evaders, polluters, racists, those who use fear and contempt to crush those more precarious than themselves. Broadly speaking, it is the rich and the selfish who want to knowingly destroy the lives of the losers – if not end them.

Thus, the capitalist order will not only be perpetuated, it will be strengthened. While it may be tempting to give up in this situation, it is the opposite that must be done. Solidarity, liberty and equality are built through constant effort, all together, much more than they are written on schools’ and town halls’ facades.

More than ever, they must guide and support our actions and commitments. As a tool for empowerment, unionism must commit itself in this direction, defend workers and marginalized people, and conquer new rights.

The choice of syndicalism

In a capitalist economy where work is unfortunately central to our lives, it becomes the main battleground for neo-liberal, totalitarian and fascist ideologies. We have seen this clearly in this election campaign with candidates’ stated intentions to force people to work, even in the worst conditions and always more, to prevent people deemed “not French enough” from working and therefore earning a salary, to reduce all welfare protection…

For decades, repeated attacks on labour law and individual freedoms have given more and more power to employers, and have reduced workers’ options for action even further. We already know that the next five years will be at least as difficult as the ones we have just experienced.

Politics cannot be reduced to participating in a few elections: the fight for a fairer world is played out every day, and on scales much more diverse and complex than the few institutional moments of electoral deadlines.

The STJV, which will celebrate its 5th year of existence this year, has assisted hundreds of workers and continues to do so. In doing so, we have witnessed workers and students in distress, exhausted and crushed by corporate performance logics, harassed and belittled by bosses, administrations and HR. But in winning the majority of these cases, we have helped them improve their conditions, and thus seen them regain the freedom, dignity and pride that had been stolen from them.

We have seen that whenever victory is possible, it is through collective struggle. We will carry on these battles together. By facing up to the employers’, governmental and state attacks every day, we can determine and try to build, together, the organisations that are best able to face them and to go on the counter-offensive.

All social progress is the result of the combined action of workers who, through strikes, demonstrations and occupations, have succeeded in establishing collective rights and protections. We are going to continue our struggle outside of electoral politics through collective action on the ground, in order to build a balance of power in favour of the people.

In the video game industry

As video game workers, we have everything to gain by defending our interests and those of our industry through union organisation. Our bosses don’t refrain from doing so, why should we? The end of capitalistic logics, of performance, crunch, but also the end of violence at work, sexist acts, harassment and discriminations of all kinds, this is what we have been fighting for at the STJV for almost 5 years.

In addition to the legal and social actions we support, we also work to reveal the shortcomings of the industry and of private/public video game schools, and assert our rights, for example by publishing propositions for a fairer industry.

Finally, and since video games play a significant role in shaping collective imagination and cultural, social and political spaces, we are fighting for video games to become a medium for positive change.

The lack of democracy in creative processes invariably leads to a tendency for our industry to become increasingly right-wing. Depoliticised themes in games, the use of our medium as a tool for military and nationalist propaganda, the lack of diversity in development teams, the industry’s passive attitude towards the proliferation of fascist groups online, the use of sexist and racist clichés in marketing campaigns… We, as video game workers, have better things to offer to the general public and to society as a whole, and to do this we must impose a balance of power in our favour.

This long-term work, from the creation of a union from scratch to our current strength, is made possible by our members. By pooling our volunteer work and dues, the union gives workers the means to undertake procedures and actions and to win them. Joining a union is part of this titanic work, made possible by the collective.

It’s time for us to take action.

While waiting for workers to have full control over their work, here, in the run-up to the 2022 presidential and legislative elections, are 8 proposals from the Syndicat des Travailleurs et Travailleuses du Jeu Vidéo to improve our industry.

1. Reduce working time: switch to a 4-day/28-hour work week with no income loss

Reducing working hours is a historical trend in the economic organisation, thanks to past struggles, which allows workers to gain time to live outside their jobs and to rest. This measure, which is perfectly suited to our industry, is spreading, as evidenced by its adoption by studios of all sizes such as Eidos-Montreal, Die Gute Fabrik, Young Horses and Armor Games, and must become the norm.

2. Effectively make permanent contracts (CDI) the norm, with no exceptions

Abusive uses of fixed-term contracts must be stopped once and for all, especially as a “disguised trial period”, a widespread practice, particularly in the largest French studios. Similarly, the use of other types of contracts and statuses, rarely justified in the video game industry, must be highly regulated and strictly limited to cases where they are explicitly requested by the relevant workers: companies must not propose them on their own.

It is also necessary to allow access to part-time work when workers request it, to take into account everyone’s needs.

3. Make paid and sick leave unlimited, abolish waiting periods and maintain 100% of the salary

As there are countless reasons for having to stop work temporarily to rest, care for oneself, one’s loved ones, etc., it is necessary that leave be unlimited as well, with a minimum annual number of days of leave to be taken. It is particularly crucial to remove the waiting period for sick leaves and compensate them 100%, in order to remove any obstacle to the needed use of these leaves.

In the absence of unlimited holidays, partial coverage of these needs can be achieved with: a 6th week of paid leave; longer, equal and compulsory maternity/paternity leave; the carry over of public holidays falling on a weekend to the previous Friday or the following Monday.

4. Strengthen the power of workers’ representatives, democracy and transparency in companies

Companies are anti-democratic environments by definition, and it is important to change this situation by involving workers in the life of the company and by strengthening the role of their elected representatives.

This includes granting a veto right for staff representatives on anything that already legally requires consultation, enabling workers to have their rights defended by their representatives.

This also requires a reform of the CSE elections to open them up to as many people as possible, by opening up the possibility of running for a CSE seat as soon as the trial period ends, and the possibility of voting in the CSE elections for anyone who has been working for the company for more than 3 months, whatever their status (thus including in particular freelancers, temps, contract workers…).

Since wages are a particular area of discrimination in companies, it is necessary to make the wage grids public, including their evolution with years of experience and inflation, and have them be voted by employees to put an end to it.

Democracy requires time to discuss, debate, and take decisions together, and therefore the allocation for all workers of part of the working time for life and democracy in the company, and the increase of delegation hours for staff representatives.

5. Give workers the power to choose the message and content of their work, and the technologies used

The video game industry, like all industries, loves secrecy and authoritarian power, and imposes choices on workers that go against their ideals or identities. In studios in particular, the design and pre-production phases are conducted behind closed doors or in small committees, with some workers considered “non-creative” or at the bottom of the ladder being systematically sidelined even though their work contributes just as much to the final result. All hierarchical levels and all professions must be involved in the pre-production of video games.

In the same way, it is necessary to impose a systematic consultation of workers on the content of games, on their economic mechanisms and technologies, on the games signed by publishers, and on clients and to attach to it a veto right for workers to be able to collectively reject a project, a feature, a technology or a particular client.

To make this effective, internal transparency on contracts passed with external actors and the relationship with publishers/groups/clients must be total.

6. Make hiring procedures transparent, accessible and non-discriminatory

In video games, hiring procedures are an excuse for all kinds of abuses. This must stop, in particular by ensuring that interviews and job tests must be carried out within a reasonable and very short time: no more tests that take days or weeks to complete. To prevent their exploitation as free labour, these hiring tests must be removed from the company’s final production, and a non-commercial exploitation agreement must be enforced.

To end wage discrimination in hiring, disclosure of the salary and status of the position sought should be made mandatory in job offers.

7. End the exploitation of freelancers and subcontractors through equal rights and working conditions

The video game industry largely relies on the exploitation of poor workers, and very often the improvement of working conditions in Western countries is done by subcontracting suffering abroad. This unacceptable situation must be countered: outsourcing contracts must guarantee that subcontracting workers are paid and treated in the same way as the workers of the contracting company.

Companies also engage in local social dumping by pitting freelancers in France against each other. Contracts of this type must become standardised and public, to ensure transparency and equality between the different freelancers hired.

8. Enforce and strengthen the control of public subsidies, integrate workers’ unions in the awarding commissions

From our direct experiences, it is clear that companies do not like to comply with rules so, in addition to imposing new ones, we need to ensure that they are enforced. The French video game industry is dependent on public funding, in particular from the CNC, to function. This funding, which is most welcome, already requires companies to comply with legislation and to fight against harassment, but without any control. In practice, the state therefore continues to subsidise companies that do not respect any of the eligibility criteria. The requirements for such subsidies must be systematically controlled before any money is paid out.

In addition to the effective deployment of controls, companies must be made more accountable through stronger sanctions in the event of non-compliance with the law. Any judgment against a company must lead to the reimbursement of subsidies received, and to the ineligibility for future subsidies. The law (especially labour law) is being violated across the board and this must stop.

To force companies to put an end to practices that are far too widespread in our industry and that disadvantage workers, contractual commitments must be extended to diversity in hiring, the limitation of turnover, compliance with labour relations and the improvement of working conditions throughout production.

Finally, workers must not be kept away from these transactions. Workers’ representatives must be consulted during controls and unions must be included in the subsidies’ awarding commissions.