Candy Crush studio King faces a strike on 25 September
Unionen and Sveriges Ingenjörer have filed a strike notice at Candy Crush maker King, with mediation under way and a walkout set for 25 September unless a deal is reached.
Staff at King, the Swedish studio behind Candy Crush, will walk out on 25 September unless mediation produces an agreement, after unions filed a strike notice over the company's refusal to sign a collective bargaining agreement.
How it got here
Unionen and Sveriges Ingenjörer submitted the notice on 15 September. King executives had rejected a proposed collective bargaining agreement the previous month, and mediation between the two sides is now under way. Naturvetarna, DIK and Akademikerförbundet SSR have said they will strike in solidarity, which would widen the action beyond King's own bargaining units.
Unionen has framed the dispute as one about influence rather than pay alone. "A collective agreement is about more than pay. It covers pensions, insurance, working hours and the ability to influence conditions at work," the union wrote in a post. "It is a cornerstone of security in the Swedish labour market."
What King says
Chief operating officer Ulrika Höjgård rejects the suggestion that the studio's own package is weaker. "King offers fair and competitive employment terms, and we are confident that our benefits and conditions are in line with, or exceed, what would be provided under a Collective Bargaining Agreement," she said. "We have also established a constructive dialogue with our local union representatives, and while we have decided not to enter into a CBA, we remain committed to continuing this respectful and transparent dialogue on important employee matters."
King president Todd Green told staff in June that the decision "was not made lightly", arguing that the company's "current benefits offering is better for our employees" and that signing an agreement "would require significant changes to how we operate in Sweden, including our processes, policies, and ways of working". Green added that the choice "does not reflect any lack of respect for trade unions or for the Swedish labour model".
Why it matters beyond one studio
Sweden's labour model runs on collective agreements covering most of the workforce, so a studio of King's size declining to sign one is a visible test of how far that model stretches into games. Candy Crush remains one of the most-played mobile games in the world, and industrial action at its developer would be the first serious strike at a major mobile studio. The timing is awkward as well: the walkout is scheduled for the final week of September, with mediation the only thing standing between the two sides and a picket line.
Our opinion
King's argument amounts to saying its staff are already well looked after, which may be true and is entirely beside the point. A collective agreement is a floor with legal force behind it rather than a gift that survives the next management reshuffle, and the studio's own reasoning, that signing one would force it to restructure benefits, is an argument about control dressed up as employee welfare. The solidarity notices from four other unions suggest Swedish labour does not buy it either. Whatever mediation produces, this is the month mobile gaming discovered it has a workforce that can organise, and that is a more interesting development than any seasonal content update.