Developers at CD Projekt Red have unionized in response to three waves of repeated layoffs, teaming up with other Polish game developers to form the Polish Gamedev Workers Union.
The new union is an independent section of Inicjatywa Pracownicza (OZZ IP), otherwise known as the Polish Trade Union Workers Initiative – a group that represents Polish workers across a wide range of industries (via Eurogamer).
The Polish Gamedev Workers Union was formed in response to layoffs at CD Projekt Red. According to the Union’s website: “We started talking about unionizing after the 2023 wave of layoffs when 9% of Reds (that is roughly 100 people) were let go. This event created a tremendous amount of stress and insecurity, affecting our mental health and leading to the creation of this union in response.”
To this end, the Polish Gamedev Workers Union is intended to “[give] workers bargaining power and a unified voice for fair working conditions and transparency of company operations… Given the significant changes that CD Projekt is undergoing, we want the employees’ voices to be directly heard when making decisions that affect all of us.”
These efforts to unionize follow three waves of layoffs at CD Projekt Red over the past three months. Back in May, 29 employees lost their jobs at The Molassas Flood, a studio owned by CD Projekt Red. Since then, the developer made 30 more layoffs, dissolving the team behind Gwent: The Witcher Card Game. Most recently, the studio laid off a further 100 people with executives claiming that this came as a result of “several deep transformations” within the company.
In an interview with Polish Gamedev Workers Union founders Lev Ki and Paweł Myszka, the pair said they “haven’t had any response” from management at CD Projekt Red. However, the union has submitted all of the necessary legal documentation, meaning that, as its website states, the organization “has legal power”.
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