Having the game on the horizon is actually a very good position for the employees for two reasons:

1. Pre-orders. Rockstar already secured $3 billion, so they don't have the argument that compensation is unfair (why they were wanting to unionize to begin with along with work hours).

2. (The big one) Pre-Launch Strike. There still is a LOT of damage that could be done to GTA6 especially given the pre-orders. If they strike before November, GTA6 would go without day 1 patches. Whatever state it is in prior to strike is how it will stay during the highest review and revenue period for the game. It would mess with marketing and potentially even push off release by months which would hit their stock price hard.