Cinema Cemetery

Why are there no VFX Unions?

Disclaimer:

The following is my own opinion and not the opinion of any studios I have worked for in the past or will work for in the future. All specific information comes courtesy of publicly accessible articles, please see the bibliography for more information.

The vulnerability of artists

Before discussing the topic of unions, let’s discuss why those in the industry may find having one to be necessary. For a more detailed take on this topic check out our Cinema Cemetery episode entitled “You Don’t Want to Work in VFX” (8)

Here’s an overview of some of the issues artists face:

“In an attempt slash costs (some of) the vfx facilities have eliminated benefits such as sick days, health insurance, and retirement accounts. Many are forced to work under illegal conditions with unpaid overtime and 1099 tax statuses where we are responsible for paying the employer’s portion of social security. The projects have become more volatile as the vfx facilities try to please the demands of the director put in place by the studio.” (1)

“Constantly months of work can be thrown away by last minute changes by directors with zero consequences. This in turn leads to extended crunch times to update the changes where artists work day and night with 70-100 hour weeks.

The problems are further compounded by countries that hope to generate economic activity by offering subsidies that essentially pay studios to have the vfx work done there. Vfx facilities are now becoming “rent seekers” where they move from country to country, state to state to take advantage of free government money. This has led many vfx artists to become permanent nomads where some are forced to leave their partners and newborn children to find temporary work in the far reaches of the world.” (1)

“The problems facing the visual effects industry are serious and complex, as seen by the number of companies failing on razor thin margins to maintain their businesses and are either closing, or consolidating. From extremely high profile companies such as Rhythm & Hues at the very point of winning a VFX Oscar, or Digital Domain restructuring, to companies that are less well known such as Look Effects closing. Between 2003 and 2013, 21 visual effects companies closed or filed for bankruptcy, yet of the 50 highest grossing films of all time, 49 are what one might call ‘effects films’.” (2)

Since then, the industry has certainly not improved or become more stable.

That’s not to say that all studios are like this, as an artist I cling fast to any studio I come across that treats me well. They’re the minority are are to be treasured. Despite positive anomalies, workers deserve to have jobs that respect their health, sanity, and age...this is where unions come in: 

“...a union will basically provide ... three things:

Portable health and retirement benefits.

Paid time off for illness and vacation.

Establishment of wage minimums and enforcement of labor laws.” (3)

Animation Unions

“How is it that some animation companies have prospered while their VFX cousins have done so poorly? Clearly there are patchy issues in animation – Dreamworks Animation has had a run of films that have been lackluster, while at the same time Disney Animation along with Pixar have prospered. But on balance the CG animation industry is thought to be in better shape than VFX overall.” (2)

This is true for many factors, the one most relevant to our discussion being the animation industry’s union.

“The Animation Guild has been the foremost animation union in Los Angeles since the early 1950s, having been chartered in 1952 as an IATSE Local after growing out of the Screen Cartoonist's Guild.

As they have almost 70 years of rich history in protecting artists, they have been able to accumulate many protections and perks for their members. These are just some of the benefits that The Animation Guild affords all union artists:

  • Wage Floors: TAG sets wage minimums for each position, that anyone employing a member has to meet for a union job. Only the minimums are set, and most artists negotiate above their wage minimums.

  • Healthcare: After acquiring the hours needed to join the MPI Health plan, members have access to low cost healthcare, paid mostly for by their employer. 

  • 401k: 839 offers several retirement options, such as a 401k plan that members can take part in, and continue with as they move to other union employers. 

  • Pension Plans: 839 also offers 2 different pension plans to assist with retirement.

  • Collective Bargaining: Being a part of a Labor Union means you have the power to negotiate your working conditions. Every 3 years, TAG collects the wants and needs of the members and negotiate with the studios to make the best contract possible.

  • Education and Training: Through IATSE, TAG uses an organization called CSATF to help educate and train members. Members of the union can partake in pre-approved courses at well known institutions and receive 2/3 reimbursement for passing a course.

  • Upholding the Contract: TAG supports its members in upholding all stipulations of the union contracts - no member is alone.

  • The International: In addition, TAG as a union is not alone. All members have the support of the full power of the International Organization (IATSE) behind them.

  • Sick Days and Vacation Days: TAG has negotiated sick day minimums for its union members. Many studios have 10 sick days a year, and up to 2 weeks of vacation a year for new employees

  • Dismissal Pay: If a show is cancelled and a union member is laid off, they are generally entitled to Dismissal/Severance pay. This is an additional amount of money paid to the artist, amount depending on pay and how long the artist was employed.

  • Overtime: TAG supports artists in the fight for paid overtime, enforcing the laws that dictate overtime. All work over 40 hours a week, and over 8 hours a day is paid as time and a half, any work over 12 hours a day is paid as double time.” (4)

I cannot IMAGINE having all those benefits.

I’m a high anxiety person who swings from stable to suicidal like Shia Labeouf swings with his gang of monkeys. Having some kind of job security would absolutely help balance a lot of my fears. 

Past attempts

So why isn’t there an established vfx union?

Well, fear mostly. A lot of prominent unions in north america were established before the myth of workers right being bad for industry really took hold. I mean come on, if people weren’t rioting in the streets, burning buildings, and getting arresting we wouldn’t have child labor laws, votes for women, and would all still be working 7 days a week.

But peak capitalism is an insidious snake, preying upon people’s fears of losing their jobs, and the vfx industry is far too recent an industry to have been grandfathered into the popular beneficial socialist protective action that was considered all-american up until around the 1950s.

That’s not to say that attempts haven’t been made:

“Back in the early 2000s Sony Pictures Imageworks had a chance to unionize.

For whatever reasons, it ended with the workers overwhelmingly voting no.

Looking back, many artists regret it.” (3)

On December 2nd, 2015, “The VFX branch of BECTU (gave) formal notice to MPC’s management that the Compositing Department at MPC (were) unionising, and (would) be applying for union recognition.

...MPC responded to this, and called the entire comp department (over 130 people) into a short meeting. They announced that the company had received a petition from BECTU for recognition of the union for the comp department. They announced that they (would) begin negotiations with BECTU, and that they (intended) to fight this bid for union recognition. They took no questions, and made no attempt to justify the excessive unpaid overtime in the VFX industry, or other issues that … made this recognition bid necessary.” (6)

Shortly thereafter, “MPC got a lot of flack because they moved a significant portion of comp to bangalore.” (7)

I’m sure it was just a coincidence that the studio “'let contracts expire' (for) most of their comp team after they tried to unionise.” (7) and then moved most of their work to India.

It’s difficult to get a union started when lobbyist controlled politicians preach fear on one side and companies actively fight against their employees on the other.

Challenges

So what does the future for VFX Workers Protections entail? Frankly, it’s a bit dismal.

“...the case can be made that organized labor would be able to better service and protect the needs of a group or workforce, through collective bargaining and by removing the marginalization of any one individual who has tangible labor issues. But just above, this will not solve the structural problems of the industry, it may address fairer working conditions or more standardization but it will be geographically confined as most if not all unions who work for specific labor conditions do so inside the national labor laws of their home country. Unions may align internationally but it is much rarer to have labor disputes in one country spill to organized labor negations in a second country, it is possible but for sensible reasons of charter and membership, unions tend to be nationally bound.” (2)

This poses a major issue as the film industry has been fleeing the United States like rats from a sinking ship for many years. 

“There are a few companies still around but movie production, for the most part, does not happen in Los Angeles.” (5)

We have a video getting into the details of how and why this exodus took place called: Hollywood Already Has Your Money: The Film Industry’s Biggest Trick (9)

“Things might have worked out differently if visual-effects companies had pushed years ago to get a piece of the back-end of the films they help make. But that never became the norm. Or if they had colluded to keep up their margins. But that didn’t happen either. The studios, meanwhile – well, an antitrust law suit alleged that Hollywood’s biggest studios did collude to fix wages and not poach animation and visual-effects employees. DreamWorks, Fox, Sony, and Disney have all by now settled the case, paying hundreds of millions of dollars in damages. But still – that hardly explains why Hollywood has hemorrhaged visual-effects jobs during a time when visual-effects spending has been booming.” (5)

Essentially, at this point, giving vfx workers protections and rights would be akin to putting a new roof on a house with a foundation made of sand. At some point the whole house is going to collapse and the entire vfx industry will need to be rebuilt, but at that point it’ll all be taking place in China and India anyways.

What will North American vfx workers be doing then? 

Well, without retirement, employment protection, or guaranteed health care...they’ll either have moved overseas or have shuffled into different industries all together.

This has been Cinema Cemetery, digging six feet deeper into film and culture.

-Josh Evans