Comment on GTA 6 dev Rockstar says recent firings were due to leaks of "confidential information" and were "in no way related to people's right to join a union"

• rockSlayer@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  I know, I’ve helped successfully form a large union within the video games industry. NDAs can only cover the work itself.

  allowed:

  • “I was moved off a high profile project because my manager hates me”
  • “The company is illegally withholding wages”
  • “I was put on a PIP for barely missing my metrics”
  • “The CEO said in a meeting that they want to use AI to replace QA”

  not allowed:

  • “Wanna hear about this cool bug I found today?”
  • “Project XYZ launches on the 30th”
  • “Let’s talk about the financials from that all hands meeting before the quarterly report”

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  • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    “The CEO said in a meeting that they want to use AI to replace QA”

    This sounds like it would be on the edge if the company is publicly traded and there’s a chance that information wasn’t communicated to investors, especially for something like video games where launch bugs could make or break initial impression and thus sales.

    “Wanna hear about this cool bug I found today?”

    This is probably fine if it’s unreleased and has been fixed. It’s probably not fine if it’s in a released product and hasn’t been fixed.

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    • rockSlayer@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      Trust me on this one, we used similar organizing techniques for issues like these. The line is thin, but lined with landmines.

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      • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

        For sure, definitely be extra careful when organizing outside of the ways sanctioned by the company. In fact, I recommend not keeping any records about anything that goes on in the company, and keep union discussions about the union itself. If you want to recruit people, talk about how you’d like the relationship between the union and company to be, not about things the company is doing that you don’t like, because there’s a huge risk of giving the company a valid reason to fire you.

        I’m more talking about what’s generally protected legally and what’s not. Again, if you’re looking to form a union, don’t get anywhere near that line.

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