A committee of Spiders employees from the French company owned by Nacon and known for creating games such as Greedfall, Steelrising, and Of Orcs and Men has released a letter calling for action and asking members to support its decision to strike.
This letter comes after the company consistently refused to take action after many employees’ pleas for aid against psycho-social issues and disrespect for the CSE and STJV union sections that represent Spiders employees.
In an open letter posted online, they announce that this call for action follows a previous open letter sent in January, in which they stated that management had continued to ignore them and their propositions. Since that letter was posted, new negotiations have been underway regarding important topics such as wages and working conditions. Spiders hope that speaking out publicly will force management to take them seriously, consider their propositions, and act in the employees’ best interests.
A 20-page document lists all of the issues that Spiders members have been experiencing, including denial of problems, global mismanagement, lack of gender equality, and blocked negotiations. The difficult production cycle of Greedfall 2 is also mentioned; the early access launch set for September 24 will require an additional workload, the employees be available, and the scheduled full release in less than a year is deemed hard to accomplish due to how much there’s left to do. Following these ongoing issues, they plan to take strike action the week of September 2.
Although Spiders has created some fantastic games over the years, management continues to do the company a disservice by not being able to ensure that staff members are safe and secure in their jobs. Employees have been denied the right to work from home or to adapt their working schedules when issues arise and are unwilling to budge on their viewpoint. With the main office in the heart of Paris, the cost of living for those working at the company is increasing, and Spiders members are now unsure how they are meant to keep living in Paris when they don’t have any financial security in their job.
For additional context, Spiders has had a limited amount of employees since 2020, with no growth happening between then and now. At the time, only 40 salaried workers were at the company and worked on one game at a time. Since then, the amount of workers has more than doubled, and they have opened additional lines of production to work on more projects. However, there has been no shift in management, and what management there is makes hasty decisions, causing rollbacks in production without consulting the developers. This has led to unhealthy work habits for many Spiders’ members, as it means that when they go on vacation, they are afraid of what they will face when they return.
It is hoped that by releasing yet another open letter and officially standing on the picket line come September 2, management will listen to Spiders members and begin to take them seriously, helping them continue to provide great content to gamers worldwide without risking their financial security or their health.
