For months, there have been rumors that the VFX artists at Marvel Studios are dissatisfied and want to unionize. Last summer, present and former Marvel VFX artists complained about their long hours and a bully-infested workplace in social media posts and news interviews.
The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, Moving Picture Technicians, Artists, and Allied Crafts, or IATSE, received a filing on Monday from the visual effects artists at Marvel Studios seeking a union election. According to a press release from the IATSE, the action was taken after the majority of the team of more than 50 employees at Marvel VFX signed union cards. “Turnaround times don’t apply to us, protected hours don’t apply to us, and pay equity doesn’t apply to us,” VFX artist Bella Huffman wrote in the press release. “Visual Effects must become a sustainable and safe department for everyone who’s suffered far too long and for all newcomers who need to know they won’t be exploited.”
This unionization drive coincides with a number of other labor protests in Hollywood. This week, the Writers Guild of America strike will have been in effect for 100 days, and the SAG-AFTRA strike will soon be one month old.
“We are witnessing an unprecedented wave of solidarity that’s breaking down old barriers in the industry and proving we’re all in this fight together. That doesn’t happen in a vacuum,” Matthew D. Loeb, IATSE president, wrote in the press release. “Entertainment workers everywhere are sticking up for each other’s rights, that’s what our movement is all about.”
Marvel Studios is viewed as a “bully” in the business, according to several VFX artists who spoke with Vulture in January. The creators said that Victoria Alonso, who was then the president of VFX and post-production at Marvel Studios, fostered a climate of terror by maintaining a blacklist for the business. A former Marvel Studios VFX technician told Vulture, “She is known in the industry as a kingmaker she likes you, and you are going to get work and move up in the industry. If you have pissed her off in any way, you’re going to get frozen out”