At Long Last, Marvel and Disney VFX Workers Ratify First Union Contract
In a major labor victory, VFX workers at Marvel and Disney as well as the Avatar franchise “overwhelmingly” voted to ratify their first collective bargaining agreements. IATSE announced the achievement today, though The Hollywood Reporter specifies that one contract, covering Marvel and Disney workers, was ratified on Wednesday, while a different agreement, specifically related to animators on the Avatar franchise, was ratified in February.
Both deals offer minimum wage for workers and access to IATSE’s healthcare and pension benefits. The Avatar contract specifically offers workers preferential hiring rights on future Avatar films, annual pay increases, meal penalties, rest periods, and dismissal and displacement pay. It also contains language protecting workers against the use of AI, which is of particular note for this franchise considering the fact that filmmaker James Cameron recently joined the board of an AI firm and expressed his feeling that “the intersection of generative AI and CGI image creation is the next wave.” While IATSE’s summary of the Disney/Marvel contract doesn’t mention AI, it also provides overtime pay and minimum hour guarantees, new minimum pay rates, rest protection equal to the editorial crew, meal contracts, and annual wage increases.
This win has been a long time coming. Most other Hollywood jobs are already covered by unions (the impact of which we saw during the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes in 2023), with VFX as a notable holdout. Around the time of the strikes, Marvel animators also began speaking out about the atrocious working conditions that’d been subjected to by the studio, with one whistleblower alleging that they regularly worked “64 hours a week on a good week,” and often saw their coworkers experiencing “anxiety attacks,” “break down,” and “crying” from work.
While Disney VFX coordinator and contract negotiator Mack Robinson acknowledged in a statement shared by IATSE “this agreement with Disney and Marvel is what I hope is just the first step to a broader change for the VFX industry,” other organizers celebrated the ratification as an outright win. “This is not just a victory for Marvel/Disney, but a much-needed win for the entire VFX industry,” said Cael Liakos-Gilbert, a VFX data wrangler at Marvel. “Seeing this come together after over two years as an organizer, contract negotiator, and now a founding union member is one of the proudest moments of my life. We’ve proven what is possible through determination and willpower, and don’t have to speculate or be shrouded in cynicism and doubt any longer. We’ve put ink to paper and given our people the contract we deserve.”