What are the chances that it was shut down because of the unionization, vs just bad timing?

100% because of unionization; this is capitalist formula.

Absolute scumbags.

71 people lose their jobs just to send a message

I've been avoiding ubi for a decade or longer because they suck in many other ways, but here's another reason to not give them a single penny.

They said they closed it as a "cost-cutting measure"... The only costs that increased was that the studio unionized, and unionized studios "cost" more.

I support unions, but at this point I'd be terrified to join a new one. Especially when you're somewhere owned by a large company or private equity firm. There are just no protections for unions anymore, and these days large companies would rather just close down entire departments than give employees basic rights. I get that the fear and intimidation are the point, but that really doesn't help. Having a gun pointed in your face is also a form of fear and intimidation, but knowing that doesn't make it any less dangerous when it happens to you. I just don't know what to do anymore, every single thing feels like a losing option while the world just continues to get worse and worse. I've scrimped and saved for years to have some sort of nest egg, and its barely more than what more successful people casually spend in a week. I don't see a way out of this mess.

Remember that 100 years ago making or joining a Union could made you get shot or get beaten. Fear was and is always their no1 weapon.

And that message is "Don't ever buy from Ubisoft ever again"

And the message is: Unions should be a constitutional right (And it is, in Denmark)

You basically just said "don't team up with your friends for protection because the bullies might get madder"

It is also a right in Canada, where this happened and where we don't refer to our rights as "constitutional" since they don't primarily service from there.

There's zero chance this was coincidence

Ubisoft is actually the worst possible video game corporation. They almost never make a game that's worthy of anyone's time, their business practices are scummy, they kill off their games and tell people to get used to not owning them, treat their workers like shit and their stock price is in the gutter so not even the wallstreet ghouls benefit from how awful they are. It's incredible.

Need more to unionise at the same time.

If they don't want you to form a union and go to such lenghts to prevent unions from forming, you know that unions are a good thing for workers and a bad thing for bosses and owners. You might want to think about joining your union.

These employees did exercise their right to unionize, but there's no way to force employers to keep the union. A union just means that you can bargain collectively, and it should theoretically protect employees because what kind of scummy employer wants to fire ALL their employees, right? Turns out Ubisoft IS that scummy.

weak shit. the weakest. i’m so sad for you

Rockstar had a similar scandal firing unionising workers last year