IATSE: Visual effects (VFX) artists employed by a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, best known for working on James Cameron’s ‘Avatar’ film series through Lightstorm Entertainment productions, have voted to unionize with the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), the union announced Wednesday. In the unionization election held by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), 57 voted in favor of union representation and 19 voted against.
3 comments:
This is so exciting! We were talking about unions in production planning the other day and it really opened my eyes to how many different groups there are that are currently represented in unions but there are also so many fighting to still find the representation they deserve. I guess in my mind VFX would be one of those groups that would already be included in a union. I can only imagine that sometimes the hours get long and work conditions get rough. I am thinking about when I have watched time lapses of people getting really incense prosthetics or body painting or whatever else for a movie and it takes hours! I am so happy that this group of artists are about to unionize and get all the benefits they deserve. I like how they stated that this is just the beginning and they are hopefully being valued and recognized.
while I do not know the ins and outs of unionizing I do know that it typically protects those who have unionized in their work environments. So when I see articles that discuss major picture employees voting to unionize you would think that out of all the movies, high-grossing movies like Avatar grossed 2 billion at the box office. You would think that a movie that has made that much would have the where with all to treat their employees well enough so that they can keep on making ridiculous amounts of cash. I mean the entire movie is practically visual effects and these visual effects artists are the ones that felt the need to unionize. How their contribution to the work could have gone not properly recognized I cannot conceive it. I mean it is literally the whole movie, and 75% is a smashing majority and very evidently shows you what the VFX artists could be feeling.
An excuse often used by companies who don’t have unionized workers is that the workers “don’t need it” for whatever reason even though the ones that say this are usually the ones who’s workers need it the most. And there is certainly no denying the need for unionizing when this vast majority votes yes to unionizing. VFX artists are known for being overworked and underpaid and the fact that they are starting to unionize, with my (definitely unbiased) favorite union IATSE no less, is exciting, to say the least. I hope VFX becomes a more consistent branch covered by IATSE in the long run. IATSE is known for how strong it is, and that’s what VFX artists like this need, they need a union that can overpower the studios that ask such unreasonable demands.
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