Launch of Ubifree virtual union website at Ubisoft
A group of developers at Ubisoft in France created the anonymous virtual ‘union’ called “Ubifree”, decrying statements from the company founders in an article by Libération. Ubifree asserted that many workers were dissatisfied, but were too scared of losing their jobs to speak out. Ubisoft employees were invited to share their stories and thoughts anonymously, both in France and at subsidiaries in Quebec, Morocco, Romania, and China. 883 messages were received and a selection of 165 were posted on the site. ‘Dialogue’ meetings were held between employees and management to discuss issues in December, although the Ubifree team refered to these mostly as ‘monologue’ meetings due to the dominance of the management voice. Commitment to changes from management led to the site being taken offline, as the group expressed that they had initially hoped that the Ubifree site would not be needed for long and they hoped that it would not have to return.