Workers at Nacon-owned Greedfall 2 studio Spiders have penned an open letter “to their employer” detailing grievances over a period of several years, and called for a strike in response to “management’s continued refusal” to take their concerns seriously. 44 of Spider’s 95 workers have signed the document, made public through French union Stjv in the hope that it “will finally push management to act in the best interests of employees and the company.”
This document covers several years of known problems, which have been greatly amplified over the past year with the arrival of the current head of the company: instability, opposition to anticipating problems and securing working conditions, global mismanagement, turnover and recruitment problems, unacceptable delays in achieving gender equality and parity, important lack of transparency, denial of problems, refusal to acknowledge worker representation and blocked negotiations.
The open letter is the second that unhappy Spiders employees have penned, following an earlier document and related strike on January 19. “Since then,” the workers in question write, “new negotiations have begun on wages, and conditions in the studio have continued to deteriorate.”
The document itself consists of 20 pages outlining the issues, and ends with a list of demands “to secure our lives, our careers and the company in the short and long term.” The listed issues include “a blatant lack of transparency on all aspects of the company”, “A difficult production cycle for Greedfall 2”, and “Management’s adamant refusal to acknowledge collective action”.
Their demands, broadly, are greater transparency and worker representation, an end to an “authoritarian and ineffective centralization of power”, greater freedom to work from home, wage increases commensurate with other Nacon studios, and “immediate rectification of all wage discrimination against women and non-binary people”.
The document also features several cartoons featuring characters from Spiders’ games.
“In light of management’s continued refusal to discuss, take the problems raised seriously and act to rectify them”, Spiders staff are calling for a strike to take place next week, starting September 2. “In particular, we will be organising pickets on September 2 and 3 in front of the company’s offices and online on a Minecraft server created for the occasion.”
We’ve had some positive news recently on the labour front. In the same week last month, both Bethesda Game Studios and World of Warcraft workers formed wall-to-wall unions. Solidarité, Spiders.
