As VFX Union Drive Grows, Some Workers Are Concerned About Roadblocks
It can be easy for film and TV viewers to take for granted that Iron Man seamlessly soars through the sky, “Star Wars” space battles look realistic, and one Lindsey Lohan appears to be two twins conspiring to entrap their parents.
But crafting such illusions requires countless hours of behind-the-scenes labor by the array of pre- and post-production workers who make up the visual effects (VFX) field.
VFX artists, who represent half or more of total jobs on many big-budget films, use technology to create movie magic. But their workplace realities can be far from magical, leading some to make history in recent weeks.
Last month, Marvel Studios’ 41 in-house VFX workers became the first to unionize under the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), the largest union for on-set and behind-the-scenes crew. The vote was 32–0. On Oct. 3, Walt Disney Pictures’ 18 in-house workers also voted unanimously to join IATSE.
“We’re seeing the beginnings of a culture shift, which we have been clamoring for for half a century, since the inception of the modern visual effects industry,” said Mark Patch, an IATSE international representative and former VFX worker who has spearheaded the unionization effort. “And all that time, I don’t think any of us felt like the work that we’ve done was any less deserving of respect or the benefits and protections our other union colleagues can rely on.”
Marvel Studios and the Walt Disney Co. did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
In 2022, IATSE surveyed nearly 1,000 VFX workers in the U.S. and Canada on their working conditions. A majority of client-side workers (who are employed by film studios) and vendor-side workers (who are employed by outside companies) said they received no compensation when forced to work through mandated breaks. Of client-side respondents, 58% said they had worked hours for which they were not accurately compensated; for vendor-side workers, the figure was 39%.
Skylar Nichols, a New York City-based VFX production manager who has worked in the industry for 10 years, said it can be frustrating to be one of the only workers on set without union protections. Union contracts include strict rules on wages, overtime pay and compensation for missed meal breaks. VFX workers say they are often paid set day rates with no additional pay if they have to forgo breaks or work longer than planned.
“There’s no compensation for meal penalties, and there’s not even compensation for if it’s a 14-hour day versus a 12-hour day,” Nichols said. “And that’s really the grind. That’s really the knife in the wound.”
Patch said IATSE plans to organize every client- and vendor-side VFX worker it can, as evidenced by its recent inroads with Canadian employees of the global VFX vendor DNEG. However, not all industry veterans are confident IATSE will be powerful enough to surmount the challenges facing the VFX workforce. Some are not anti-union but worry the road to industry-wide unionization will be bumpy. Others fear the endeavor could spell disaster for the portion of the VFX industry remaining in the U.S.
Kelly Myers, a Las Vegas-based artist, supervisor and company owner who’s been in VFX for three decades, thinks unionization will exacerbate outsourcing of jobs to countries with low wages or strong tax incentives — China, India, Canada, the U.K., Australia and others. He thinks an undermined U.S. film industry would benefit China, America’s main economic rival.
“It will destroy the visual-effects industry,” Myers said. “And in turn, because visual effects is so prominent, it’ll likely implode much of the production around the world. And this is something the Chinese would love to have, because once they master the ability to make a rock-solid Hollywood blockbuster feature film, we’ve lost our ability to influence our own culture and the culture around the world.”
Patch said outsourcing is something “we are doing everything within our disposal to build safeguards around.” He thinks if workers are concerned about the issue, they should rush to organize their workplaces and get to the bargaining table.
Myers said he thinks unions like IATSE “don’t mix” with VFX, because the people running them don’t understand artists’ needs or how the industry functions. The many jobs within VFX — from compositor to animator to lighter and more — are highly specialized, have different hours and pay structures and are constantly evolving in response to new technology, he said.
“We’re not like carpentry and paint,” Myers said. “Those people do the same thing day in and day out and don’t need to learn how to do something totally different every single time they get a new shot assigned to them.”
Michael Jackson, a Los Angeles-based freelance VFX artist and supervisor with 28 years of experience, also thinks uniting VFX workers’ interests under one umbrella will be challenging.
“VFX artists are like cats — you can’t herd them,” Jackson said. “So trying to get everybody all on the same page is gonna be really difficult.”
One of Jackson’s chief complaints about the unionization process is that VFX supervisors — workers who serve as liaisons between directors and VFX artists — have not yet been permitted to vote alongside their fellow workers. IATSE’s reasoning for the exclusion stems from a section of the National Labor Relations Act that prohibits supervisors from unionizing with their employees if they meet certain criteria, such as having hiring and firing power.
However, many VFX supervisors believe their job titles are misleading because they function as part of the artistry team rather than upper management. Some, like Jackson, also frequently work on contracts where they serve as both a supervisor and an artist.
“If you sit there and you split out someone within the vendor from their artists, you’re breaking solidarity,” Jackson said. “The vendor is so constrained from above that those supervisors and producers are more closely tied to the artist than they are to production.”
Patch said the NLRA rule has “a lot of gray area,” and IATSE will fight for supervisors to be included in the VFX union as it grows. Just as the camera operators’ union includes directors of photography and the writers’ union includes showrunners, Patch wants “every single person with VFX in their job title in our union,” he said.
“We feel that everyone who’s on the call sheet, we’re clearly working at the behest of the studio, we’re employees of the corporation and we deserve basic protections and rights,” Patch said.
Most vendor-side and client-side respondents to the 2022 IATSE survey reported not receiving portable health coverage or retirement-fund contributions from their employers. Forty-five percent of client-side and 42% of vendor-side workers said they received employer-sponsored health insurance for the length of their current project only, while 43% of client-side and 33% of vendor-side respondents said they got no such coverage at all.
Most other entertainment workers, who are members of unions, can receive union health insurance and pension plans if they work enough hours per year. Those plans’ portability allows workers to maintain consistent coverage as they move between jobs.
Jackson wants the benefits security that would come from union membership. He relies on a patchwork of health coverage dependent on each project and employer. Similarly, he has multiple 401Ks that don’t receive regular employer contributions. More than five months with little work since the entertainment strikes began have highlighted his financial precarity, he said.
“An on-set grip has insurance when he’s not on a show,” Jackson said. “A camera operator has money in a pension program. I don’t, and I’ve been doing this 28 years,” Jackson said. “I’m gonna die on the [job], that’s the way I see it, because I don’t have any of the backstops.”
Although Nichols thinks the challenges facing the VFX industry are daunting, he is hopeful something will give for workers — even if it’s not IATSE’s current efforts that create the change.
“The optimistic side of me would say it’s possible,” Nichols said. “And there’s definitely a necessity. I don’t know if this will be the thing that makes it happen. I think it just might happen in an unpredictable way.”
