"If Quantic Dream wants to destroy jobs, it must pay": French union call strike as they demand extension to layoff negotiations with Star Wars Eclipse studio

Union ask that "propositions from worker representatives be included in the layoffs plan"

Image credit: Quantic Dream

The French Syndicat des Travailleureuses du Jeu Vidéo (STJV) union have called for an open-ended strike at Star Wars Eclipse developers Quantic Dream, as negotiations over the laying off of staff following the decision to end development of MOBA Spellcasters Chronicles rumble on. The union say around 115 workers are affected, and are demanding an extension to the negotiating period over these planned cuts.

In a blog post on August 4th, the STJV accused Quantic Dream of having "imposed illegal deadlines", "wasted half of the negotiation time (6 weeks over a total of 3 months) to discuss the terms of negotiation", and "refused to provide necessary documents by claiming that negotiators would 'corrupt' them". "We also cannot go over the fact that our delegates formulated many propositions and demands, all along the negotiations, which the executives mostly ignored for the four meetings," the union added. "During one of the last meetings, the company did not say a single word about the propositions that were made more than a week before."

They continued:

It is clear that Quantic Dream’s management wants to limit itself to doing the bare minimum When the company is affected neither by a weak market (which is doing fine, regardless of what bosses say) nor by a lack of worker motivation (their struggle shows how much they want to save their jobs and their work), it is normal to offer decent layoff conditions to help those who will lose their job just because their bosses decided so. At Quantic Dream, this is not the case. At every meeting, the company executives, and especially [CEO] Guillaume de Fondaumière, simply didn’t listen. They showed that they only want to go as low as possible, forgetting that they are legally bound to conduct loyal negotiations, not turn them into a farce.

Declaring that "this negotiation risks being just an act from executives who decided to do whatever they want", the STJV have called for an open-ended strike at Quantic Dream starting today, August 5th. "We demand an extension to the negotiations and, at the very least, that the propositions from worker representatives be included in the layoffs plan," the union wrote.

I've asked Quantic Dream for comment.

The SJTV previously called for a national strike across the French games industry in June, citing these Quantic Dream layoffs. Quantic Dream claimed to IGN in June that "development of Star Wars Eclipse is continuing as planned, with the full commitment of its team and all the necessary resources to complete its mission", despite the planned layoffs.

Solidarity to the developers at Quantic Dream.