The French trade union STJV (Le Syndicat des travailleurs et travailleuses du jeu vidéo), founded in 2017, and almost half of the workforce of the French development studio Spiders (Steelrising, The Technomancer, Greedfall) are threatening to strike due to poor working conditions. An elected committee representing the interests of the employees published an open letter on the STJV website two days ago, signed by 44 of the studio's 95 employees. It announces the strike for the week of September 2 to 8, 2024.
The reasons for the strike, according to the STJV workers' representatives, are the growing instability and uncertainty at the developer, the unsatisfactory wage development, the ideological attitude of the company management and its refusal to acknowledge problems, the unilateral withdrawal of agreements, global mismanagement, excessive staff turnover and the loss of qualified workers, unacceptable delays in gender parity, worsening inequality, lack of transparency in all aspects of the company, obstruction of collective action and attempts at division by management, the refusal to accept employee representation and the lack of willingness to compromise in negotiations.
These conditions would currently lead to a very difficult situation in the company, which would have a negative impact on the production cycle of Greedfall 2 – The Dying World Ultimately, the title is scheduled to go into Early Access on September 24, 2024. Due to uncertain prospects, fears for one's existence, loss of motivation, growing disinterest and burnout, too many employees would reorient themselves and the quality of production would be deliberately jeopardized. Since the company management has so far refused all attempts at cooperation to solve the internal problems, the strike would now be the only option, according to the committee.
In the meantime, the official Spiders studio management has commented on the matter. They deny all allegations and a spokesperson describes the situation as follows:
STJV's false and even defamatory accusations in no way reflect the reality of the daily work of the company's employees and are an attack on the reputation of the studio, whose teams are fully mobilized to produce high-quality games and enthusiastically ensure the Early Access release of GreedFall 2. Spiders management is committed to open and constructive social dialogue. After unsuccessful attempts in recent days to meet with a delegation of employees, a new meeting was proposed by the end of the week. Spiders' employees are the heart of the studio and we are committed to maintaining an inclusive and stimulating work environment where every talent can thrive and that we can all be proud of.
Such a statement does not really serve to de-escalate the situation and is less suitable for preventing the announced strike. We will keep you informed about the course of developments here at GamersGlobal. The current trailer of the gamescom2024 We have included a new article about Greedfall 2 – The Dying World, which focuses on the Early Access status and offers a general overview of the title, under the news.