CD Projekt Red devs are forming a Polish games industry union after a wave of layoffs earlier this year
The studio cut about 100 members of staff in the three rounds of layoffs.
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Following a series of layoffs earlier this year, staff at CD Projekt Red have formed a union for the entire Polish video game industry.
This year has been an incredibly rough one for developers across the board, with wave after wave of unnecessary layoffs across multiple major studios. CD Projekt Red was no different, with July seeing the third round of layoffs within three months at the Cyberpunk 2077 and Witcher 3 developer. Now, staff at CD Projekt Red have formed a video game union called the Polish Gamedev Workers Union that all members of the Polish games industry are encouraged to join. It has the express purpose of improving "workplace/industry standards in a way that has legal power and amplifies" voices of the workers in question.
In an FAQ on the union's website, it's explained that discussions of a union began after the layoffs at CD Projekt, which amounted to roughly 100 people. "This event created a tremendous amount of stress and insecurity, affecting our mental health and leading to the creation of this union in response," reads the FAQ. "Having a union means having more security, transparency, better protection, and a stronger voice in times of crisis.
"The above shows how employers tend to view their interests to be in conflict with those of their employees. While employees are the ones creating value in this arrangement, they lack any decision power in company-structure-related matters. That is why we need to organise to enter those situations on equal footing."
The FAQ also noted that the union believes unionising is "a way for us to preserve the industry’s potential."
According to an interview with Lev Ki and Paweł Myszka, the founders of the movement, they "haven't had any response," from CD Projekt, at least at the time of writing, but all relevant legal documents have been submitted, meaning the higher ups at CD Projekt are aware of the union (thanks, Eurogamer).
Over the past couple of weeks, we've seen further layoffs at studios like Team17 and Naughty Dog, as well as Epic Games which cut almost 900 members of staff.