Deadline.com: When a VFX town hall was held back in March, the visual effects community was in a state of panic, unsure of how best to unite to battle subsidies, runaway productions, untenable working conditions and other issues endemic to the industry. A follow-up event held last night in LA (and online from San Rafael and Vancouver — watch it here) focused movement toward forming a VFX union, but it marked only slight progress for organizing efforts. With many LA VFX artists preoccupied by the work that’s draining away from the region to other subsidized cities, community meetings like this remain hung up on the kinds of nightmare stories of extreme work days and paycheck delays that keep circulating around the biz. “I bought my co-worker toothpaste because she didn’t have money to afford it,” said VFX artist Diana Marie Wells, late of infamous NewBreed VFX, who streamed in from Montreal where she’s been battling alongside other artists for payment owed.
4 comments:
Its interesting to see an effort to unionize in the US. Its terrible that VFX workers are not getting proper treatment in the work place, and something needs to be done about that but unionizing might not be the best way. According to the article, IATSE is not in full support of a separate union. Additionally, unions, although they have their uses, can be get to be counter-productive and annoying to deal with. I think that IATSE's want of a 70% margin is a good goal because it would show the absolute need for a union for VFX workers.
Its interesting to see an effort to unionize in the US. Its terrible that VFX workers are not getting proper treatment in the work place, and something needs to be done about that but unionizing might not be the best way. According to the article, IATSE is not in full support of a separate union. Additionally, unions, although they have their uses, can be get to be counter-productive and annoying to deal with. I think that IATSE's want of a 70% margin is a good goal because it would show the absolute need for a union for VFX workers.
Again, we see an example of people being afraid to unionize. Despite the possibility that the heydays of unionization in industries like steel and manufacturing are over, there are still industries where people are overworked and underpaid, but some are too afraid to unionize. Apparently the VFX industry is one of them. But, judging by the comments section on this article, unions are still a highly polarizing issue even among those who could potentially enjoy their protection. The article said that, despite the fact that only a simple majority is required to unionize a shop, IATSE is looking for 70%, a goal that could, potentially, take years more to accomplish, if ever.
Unions are a very interesting thing in general. They add so many layers and layers of complication and inefficiency to systems that are often not very efficient to begin with. But at the same time unions are completely necessary. Without them labor would be far to easy to exploit. The battle of corporation versus union has been raging for quite some time now and I don't believe it will ever stop. there's never going to be a peace treaty between employers and wage earners. So I think the best idea is for VFX workers to band together so they can collectively fight together.
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