Nearly 50 Marvel VFX workers voted to unionize last month. These are the guys who are responsible for creating the magic behind Marvel’s big-budget TV shows and movies. On Tuesday, this unionization effort also received ample support from Disney VFX workers. After generating a 13-0 result, they voted to become a member of IATSE (International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees), a globally prominent labour union representing over 150,000 artisans, craftspersons, and technicians.
These VFX workers want proper healthcare services, fair pay, and more sustainable working conditions in return for the time and hard work they devote to their work.
Nowadays, major film studios prefer VFX over filming scenes in actual locations. This scenario has augmented the workloads of VFX artists. They are forced to work under tight deadlines and long working hours without any sort of protection. A strong unionization effort may change it all.
Mark Patch, one of the VFX artists for Christopher Nolan’s Tenet, has raised his voice in favour of unionization. “We’re organizing more studios which we hope to announce in the coming weeks/months, but the hope is to try and set an industry standard contract for all work. This is not about Marvel or Disney, this is about VFX workers throughout Hollywood and demanding respect for the work that we do.”
The recently concluded WGA strike and the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike have forced many studios to postpone the release of many of their big-budget projects. This scenario can adversely impact the box office revenues of these projects. In addition, it may affect the budgets of films and TV shows in future. If we add VFX unionization into this mix, then things do not look good at all for production houses.
Apart from ensuring fair pay and good working environment, VFX unionization will also protect newly hired workers with the help of an IATSE collective bargaining agreement. Stay tuned for more updates.