Some Speeches

Filed Under: Personal

Tagged: Unions, IWGB, Game Workers Branch, Rockstar

In November and December I delivered a few speeches to members, supporters and the general public.

I am not a particularly confident public speaker. After the first one I was so emotionally overwhelmed that I went and hugged more or less the first person I could find. That first one, delivered outside Rockstar North on November 6th, one week after Dismissal Day, went as follows:

Hi, I’m Rachel.

I worked on the Network Code team here.

I was hired as a Junior in 2016 and for the past 9 years I could not have hoped for a better group of colleagues, mentors and, most of all: friends.

I grew from a graduate to a Senior, every day living and breathing Rockstar’s games, Rockstar’s technology and Rockstar’s community. They became a part of me and I of them.

On Thursday, when I was fired without warning, without process and without representation, I felt like a part had been ripped out of me. I was not even allowed to say goodbye.

I was in complete shock. Shock that the company to which I had given so much of my labour, my passion, my creativity, my care, my self would kick me out the door so aggressively.

And for what?

I stand up for my colleagues. I help them organize. I want to make Rockstar, and the games industry as a whole, a better place for the people who make the games, who, like me, have given so much of themselves to it.

And it’s not just me. It’s not just the people who were unfairly dismissed on Thursday.

There are hundreds of us, at Rockstar, and thousands across the industry. Every day more workers stand up and join our number. We will not be intimidated, we will not be silenced, and we will not stop until the day comes when the games industry is the best it can possibly be.

The union makes us strong.

Thank you.

You can watch the opening of it in People Make Games’ first video on our situation. I think I have a recording of the back half of it buried somewhere. Perhaps I’ll dig it up and share it in post.

My second speech was about a week later at our first fundraiser event, hastily- but well-organised by our supporters in the upstairs of a local pub. It was so crowded it was like speaking to a can of sardines.

I’m Rachel. I’m one of those who was fired on October 30th. I was a member of the Network Code team at Rockstar North for 9 years. For much of that time I was also involved in union organising, because I believed that having a strong union at Rockstar would improve the lives of its employees.

I still do.

I still believe that because I’ve seen firsthand the power of the union.

I saw it in the legal team, who sprung into action within minutes of the first firing on October 30th and worked flat out to get our appeals in on time.

I heard it in the expressions of support from members, both within and outside Rockstar, then in the way they spoke up for us, shouted for us. (Just a few nights ago the branch held a general meeting about our situation that was joined by so many people that the union’s Zoom subscription had to be upgraded!)

I felt it in hugs from colleagues and comrades, in the passion of our organisers and other IWGB staff.

Without those resources, without that solidarity, that togetherness, all of us would be twisting in the wind.

With the union, though we feel scared, shocked still, and unsure of what comes next, we are ready to keep fighting. Not just for the best outcome for ourselves but for every other worker at Rockstar and in this industry.

I am, we all are, so grateful for that support.

Thank you.

There’s no recording of this one because there was a strict no-recording and no-photos policy at the event because some of our supporters were from Rockstar and were understandably very anxious about appearing on camera.

My third speech was outside the Scottish Parliament, in the dark and the rain, on November 18th¹. There is a full recording of this one, thankfully:

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A post shared by Rachel Crawford (@rachelnertia)

Here’s the text:

Hello, I’m Rachel, I was one of those fired on the 30th of October. I was fired without warning after 9 loyal years of employment. I’d just like to talk about why we were trying to unionise, because in all of this drama and excitement, I can’t help but feel like that bigger picture has been lost.

Unionising, to me at least, has always been about friendship. What is now an over 200 person strong organisation within Rockstar started as nothing more than a small group of friends looking at our workplace around us and wondering if we could change it for the better. We weren’t motivated by money, or glory, or other forms of personal gain - we were simply motivated by each other.

We cared about each other and we wanted the best for each other.

We wanted to have each others’ backs if something went wrong. We wanted to help each other win protections and better conditions. We saw the ways the company was trying to improve, and wanted to create a structure that would allow management to hear our feedback better. We saw the fear in each other and wanted it gone. We wanted more than kind words but actual kindness, flowing out into the world around us to remake it.

We cared about each other so much we put our own livelihoods at risk. My friends still within the studio continue to do so.

Here we are in the aftermath of an attempt to destroy us both as individuals and as a collective. Am I struggling? Yes. Are we struggling? Yes.

But am I destroyed?

Is this group around me?²

They wanted to make us feel afraid to care for each other, but care is not something that can be destroyed. Their campaign of fear has failed!

Years have passed since those first clandestine conversations which sprouted this whole thing. Our care, our friendship, our union, has put down roots and those roots have grown strong. They feed something that cannot be stopped by fear. Whenever it is damaged, it will only grow back all the more powerful.

What happens here will be pivotal for the games industry.

The campaign for unionisation at Rockstar did not end on October 30th.

It has only just begun.

Thank you.

I’m immensely proud of these speeches, of those of my comrades, and of all the actions we’ve taken to fight back against what happened to us over the last few months. While I remain deep in a trauma mine, where every day is a struggle against depression, I know with absolute confidence that when I emerge and look back I will see not a lost or shrinking person, but a growing one. Not everyone gets the opportunity to find out who they are, so, in some silver-lined ways, I’m grateful.