On-set VFX workers petition to unionize at Marvel Studios
If this works out, it will be the first push in trying to unionize more and more overworked VFX artists
Back in December, stories began to spread about the horrible working conditions for VFX artists on Marvel Studios movies, with the company getting dragged for outrageous demands and the immense amount of pressure it puts on VFX studios. At the time, IATSE—the organization that represents behind-the-scenes crew on movies and television—had begun investigating pay rates and working conditions for VFX artists ahead of a push to unionize that industry (since VFX workers are some of the only people in Hollywood not represented by a union).
Now, with SAG-AFTRA and the WGA on strike, that push is getting even stronger: According to Vulture, 50 members of Marvel Studios’ 52-person on-set VFX crew have filed a petition to unionize under IATSE, with Mark Patch (the union’s VFX organizer) saying in a statement that “workers in the visual-effects industry have been denied the same protections and benefits their coworkers and crewmates have relied upon since the beginning of the Hollywood film industry,” and that this is “a historic first step for VFX workers coming together with a collective voice demanding respect for what we do.”
To be clear, the group petitioning for union recognition are, as Vulture explains it, the “data wranglers, production managers, witness camera operators, and assistants” who work on Marvel productions—not the much larger group of post-production people who, say, give Emilia Clarke’s a Drax arm or replace the fake She-Hulk head above Tatiana Maslany with the real digital She-Hulk model. But Vulture says getting union recognition for this “relatively small yet high-profile group” at Marvel is specifically the first step in unionizing everyone in that VFX pipeline.
The idea is that if this works, it will prove that unionization like this is viable for VFX workers, which will lead to more VFX workers unionizing, which will lead to better conditions as a whole for some of the most important and least appreciated people behind the biggest movies in the entire world. Bob Iger may be getting millions of dollars to run Disney, but without writers, actors, or visual effects artists, Marvel Studios can’t make anything.