The ultimate listening to within the Rockstar Video games versus the 31 fired GTA 6 builders employment tribunal has begun in Scotland, and it is opened to rallies and rousing speeches from the individuals unceremoniously marched out of the corporate’s workplaces final October.
Photos and movies shared on social media present a gathering of individuals with IWGB union banners and home made placards – flaunting slogans akin to “what’s disgusting; union busting” and “404: Rockstar’s respect for employees not discovered” – outdoors the Glasgow Tribunals Centre, the place the listening to is going down.
However the centrepiece of the morning’s exercise was a rousing speech on the character of worry by fired Rockstar worker Rachel Crawford. “The fashionable office runs on worry: worry of talking out, worry of being punished, worry of being fired, dropping your livelihood and even your house,” Crawford mentioned, in a video recorded by IWGB Recreation Staff union co-founder Austin Kelmore.
“On October thirtieth 2025 I used to be fired by Rockstar Video games. I used to be fired with out warning and with out even being given a transparent reply about what it was I might carried out to deserve it. Inside minutes, I used to be out the door, feeling humiliated and ashamed, and ever since I’ve replayed that day in my head questioning what I may or ought to have carried out in another way.
“On that day, worry asserted its dominance. I felt its claws deep in my coronary heart, urging me to run with my tail between my legs and by no means to look again. I noticed it in my former colleagues, too afraid to speak to me and even, in some circumstances, to take a look at me. I heard it each time those who did communicate to me advised me how powerless they felt to do something to cease or undo what had occurred, although they knew it was improper.
Closing out the rally, @nershly.bsky.social superbly speaks about her expertise being fired by Rockstar and the way they attempt to use worry.
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— Austin Kelmore (@austinkelmore.com) 10 September 2026 at 09:46
“Worry desires to rule us. It closes our minds, our hearts, and our horizons. It makes us small, unhappy and hopeless. However at present, we’re preventing worry. This long-awaited listening to is a chance to place worry as an alternative beneath us. Over the subsequent 5 weeks we’ll face worry and present that we refuse to be silenced by it. Despite worry, we’ll rise up proudly, communicate out reality, and demand a greater trade, a greater world that all of us deserve.
“And we’re not simply preventing worry within the courtroom. Lots of my former colleagues at Rockstar Video games have taken up the union’s flag and at the moment are pushing for the popularity, safety, and energy that worry has denied them for too lengthy. Worry won’t defeat them and it’ll not defeat us. Union makes us robust. Thanks.”
Rockstar Video games now has to reply allegations of illegal dismissal and blacklisting after making an attempt to get the case thrown out earlier this yr. The IWGB union, which is representing the fired staff, claims Rockstar eliminated the 31 employees as a result of they had been members of that exact same union, although Rockstar claims it fired them for “gross misconduct” and sharing confidential data on the IWGB Discord server.
It is develop into a excessive profile subject within the UK, a lot so it was debated in Parliament and mentioned by then Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who referred to as the matter “deeply regarding”. A Rockstar Recreation Staff union has additionally sprung up in response to final yr’s firings and has levelled but extra allegations towards the corporate, round crunch and gender pay gaps, and weaponising bonus funds.
The ultimate listening to ought to take round 5 weeks to run its course, that means it runs near GTA 6’s nineteenth November launch, and the IWGB seeks – on the fired staff’ behalf – both their reinstatement or compensation for them, “in addition to a discovering from the tribunal that their dismissals had been unfair”. Ought to a tribunal rule in favour of the fired staff, it might be a historic step in the direction of official union illustration at Rockstar, and maybe result in union recognition akin to we noticed signed by Blizzard in a single day.