A crowd of more than 50 Ubisoft workers and supporters braved the cold at a rally Thursday in downtown Halifax, urging the video game developer to reopen the studio that closed earlier this month after a successful union drive.
Camille Hunt, who worked as a junior associate producer at Ubisoft in Halifax until she was laid off along with 70 of her colleagues, said Thursday the timing of the shut down was “very suspicious,” given that it happened about three weeks after most staff members voted to unionize.
“It was announced that we were successful (in forming a union) very, very soon before we were told we were closed,” she said in an interview at the rally.
The Paris-based company — best known for its Assassin’s Creed franchise — has said the move had nothing to do with a union drive that resulted in 60 employees joining the Canadian branch of the Communications Workers of America (CWA).
The office was Ubisoft’s first to unionize in North America.
Instead, it said the closure is linked to “cost-optimization” and it respects employees’ right to unionize, adding that some of its existing offices are unionized.
The company said it has been trimming its operations for the past two years, well before the union announced in June that a majority of Ubisoft Halifax staff had agreed to file for union certification. On Dec. 18, the Nova Scotia Labour Board certified the new local after 74 per cent of the staff voted in favour of the move. On Jan. 7, the Halifax studio was closed.
The company, which employed more than 17,000 people as of September, said earlier this month it had cut more than 1,500 jobs in the previous year.
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Ubisoft did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.
Hunt was joined by former co-workers and supporters at the event held in downtown Halifax’s Grand Parade square Thursday morning. She and other workers at the rally are calling on the provincial government to speak up in support of the workers and push for the firm to reopen their Halifax office.
Their union has filed a complaint with the Nova Scotia Labour Board accusing Ubisoft of shutting down the Halifax operation to keep out the union.
CWA Canada describes itself as the country’s only all-media union, representing 6,000 workers at the CBC, The Canadian Press, and newspapers, tech, digital media, video gaming and other companies coast to coast.
Jon Hoffman, a former lead programmer at Ubisoft’s Halifax studio, said Thursday the closure has been devastating for the 71 employees there and their families.
He spoke at the rally, calling on the Nova Scotia government to stand up for the workers and enforce the existing labour laws aimed at preventing union busting.
“The biggest thing is we just want to make sure everybody’s following the rules, because it really looks like they aren’t,” he told reporters.
“So the message we have for (labour) minister Young is simply enforce what already exists,” Hoffman said.
Hoffman said as far as he’s aware, Labour Minister Nolan Young has not been in touch with laid-off Ubisoft workers. “We’d love to have a conversation to minister Young.”
Young’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Ubisoft’s largest production studio is in Montreal, but it also has studios in Toronto, Winnipeg, Quebec City, Sherbrooke, Que., and Saguenay, Que. In May 2024, a Ubisoft Quebec manager said the Montreal studio employed about 4,000 people.
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