A French union is urging Ubisoft’s Paris employees to go on strike.
Solidaires Informatique, a French union that covers the video game sector, published a call to action tweet on January 17th asking Ubisoft Paris employees to go on strike. The tweet came after Yves Guillemot, CEO of Ubisoft, sent an email to employees discussing the recent news that Ubisoft was canceling more unannounced titles and delaying Skull and Bones again in response to poor financial performance.
The internal email, whose contents were reviewed and reported on by Kotaku, stated, “Today more than ever, I need your full energy and commitment to ensure we get back on the path to success.”
Guillemot also wrote, “The ball is in your court to deliver this line-up on time and at the expected level of quality.”
In its tweet calling for a strike, Solidaires Informatique referenced that line, writing, “The ball is in our court (but the money stays in his pocket).”
Solidaires Informatique challenged the email, asking what Ubisoft’s management had done to support its employees.
Mr. Guillemot asks a lot from his employees, but without any compensation.
Have salaries kept up with the high inflation of recent years?
What about the implementation of the 4-day week?
What has been put in place for the teams that come out of the productions exhausted (like those of Just Dance or Mario)?
The union demanded that Ubisoft immediately implement a 10 percent raise to keep up with inflation and institute a four-day workweek. It closed the tweet stating that the only way these demands would be taken seriously was through a strike set to take place on January 27th at Ubisoft’s Paris headquarters. There do not seem to be plans for Ubisoft’s international offices to join the strike.
