The union representing workers at Ubisoft Paris has been asked to strike after recent comments from CEO Yves Guillemot. The strike has been called by Solidaires Informatique, accusing the CEO of blaming the French publisher’s current situation as the fault of the workers.
“Today more than ever, I need your full energy and commitment to ensure we get back on the path to success,” Guillemot wrote in an internal email last week. “I am also asking that each of you be especially careful and strategic with your spending and initiatives, to ensure we’re being as efficient and lean as possible. The ball is in your court to deliver this line-up on time and at the expected level of quality, and show everyone what we are capable of achieving.”
https://twitter.com/SolInfoJeuVideo/status/1615263954955116546
The Solidaires Informatique claims that the email from Guillemot asked staff to “be as efficient and lean as possible” and “give it our all,” essentially shifting the onus to the employees. This in essence would lead to the same employees leaving them to deal with crunch and burnout.
In response to Guillemot’s email, the union immediately asked for several things including an immediate 10% increase for all salaries, regardless of annual increases, to compensate for inflation, the improvement of working conditions, in particular, the implementation of the four-day week, transparency on the evolution of the workforce, both locally and globally, and a strong commitment against disguised dismissals and condemnation of abusive managerial policies that push employees to resign.
The strike is set to take place on January 27, from 2 to 6 PM CET.
In 2021, the same union took Ubisoft to court after sexual harassment allegations. Several of the executives were ousted while some remained on board and reassigned to new positions.
Ubisoft has had problems retaining workers and has cancelled several games internally while also seeing recent releasing not hit sales forecasts including Just Dance 2023 and Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope.
