CWA Canada accuses Ubisoft of trying to keep out the union, while the French gaming giant claims the shutdown was part of unrelated restructuring plans
The union representing workers at the recently shuttered game developer Ubisoft Halifax has a filed a legal complaint with the labour board.
On Tuesday, CWA Canada accused French gaming giant Ubisoft of closing the Halifax studio, which employed 71 people, to keep out the union. Ubisoft axed the studio on January 7, mere weeks after it had successfully formed a union to represent 61 workers. Given the timing, many viewed this to be a union-busting effort, but Ubisoft claimed that the closure had been in the works prior to the formation of the union as part of broader cost-cutting measures. This has included the shuttering of Ubisoft studios in San Francisco and Osaka, as well as layoffs at the company’s Abu Dhabi team this week.
In response to Ubisoft’s claims, CWA Canada said the “sudden decision took everyone by surprise, unlike typical economic cuts where employers provide notice and financial backup to prove hardship.” The union has also demanded that Ubisoft release records to prove that its decision was solely based on financial necessity. It added that Ubisoft has received nearly $13 million in provincial tax credits between 2017 and 2025 “to nurture a generation of talent and to build a tech industry,” only to now walk away “without so much as an apology.”
And beyond Ubisoft specifically, the union argues that “labour law should be updated to expressly give labour boards the power to force employers to reopen for a year, and help find alternate work for staff, or pay laid-off workers three years’ salary – things that could have been negotiated in a union contract.”
“It’s against the law to stop workers from joining a union in Canada, but the slap on the wrist employers often get is not enough to stop this,” CWA Canada President Carmel Smyth said in a media statement. “The penalty should reflect the reality of intentional corporate bullying.”
In a separate release, CWA Canada further condemned the Halifax closure by sharing French Senate data that Ubisoft had received nearly $1 billion in tax credits from Canadian governments between 2020 and 2024 alone. Ubisoft currently employs around 17,000 people around the world, more than 4,000 of which are located at the company’s various Canadian studios. In fact, its flagship Montreal studio is the biggest game developer in the world and the maker of many of Ubisoft’s biggest franchises, like Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, Rainbow Six and Watch Dogs. Despite that large Canadian footprint, though, CWA Canada says Ubisoft has no plans to relocate any of the affected workers to any other studios.
“It’s outrageous that a company can take hundreds of millions in tax breaks – public money – and then shut down an operation and lay off workers,” said Smyth in a statement. “And it’s shocking that governments allow it to happen.”
Source: CWA Canada
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