Marvel Visual Effects Employees Form Union
Marvel’s visual effects workers have voted in favor of unionizing as they advocate for improved pay, overtime compensation, enhanced benefits, and fair treatment. As reported by Vulture, a significant majority of the company’s 50 on-set VFX employees have submitted a petition to the National Labor Relations Board, seeking an election to join the Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE). This union already represents various professionals such as hair and makeup artists, wardrobe personnel, lighting technicians, and prop personnel. Despite Marvel’s heavy reliance on visual effects to bring its universe, superheroes, and supervillains to life on the big screen, its VFX artists have not been part of a union. IATSE has been actively campaigning to expand its membership to include VFX and animation workers in recent months.
Several of the company’s current and former VFX workers previously spoke of grueling schedules and pressure-induced breakdowns while working on shows and films for the studio. Sources told IGN that people were given tasks that were impossible to complete within the time limit set to complete them. Some VFX artists told Vulture that the hectic production schedule on Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, for example, resulted in rushed work and a final product that many reviewers had described as “dimensions.”
VFX Coordinator Bella Huffman said, “On-call hours don’t concern us, sheltered hours don’t concern us, and equity doesn’t concern us. Visual effects must become a sustainable and safe department for everyone who has also suffered for a long time and for all newcomers who need to know that they are not they are being taken advantage of.”
Vulture says a strike by Marvel’s VFX artists isn’t out of the question. It’s a common tactic used by workers seeking to organize — and both the Writers Guild and Screen Actors Guild are currently on strike to demand better pay, streaming residuals from successful shows, and regulation of the use of artificial intelligence in Hollywood.
