IATSE said Friday that visual effects workers at Disney‘s Marvel Studios, Walt Disney Pictures and the Avatar franchise have voted to approve their first collective bargaining agreements since unionizing in 2023.
The union said the Disney and Marvel contracts are four years before renegotiation, and include overtime pay and minimum hours guarantees; inclusion in MPI Healthcare & Pension (an increase in total compensation of about $13 per hour worked for every employee in the form of health care
and retirement contributions paid by the studios); and pay raises on minimum rates retroactive to January 1, 2025.
The Avatar workers’ contract is for three years and includes provisions for preferential hiring rights, without a loss of pay, on future Avatar films for current bargaining unit employees; IATSE Basic Agreement annual wage increases; MPIPHP benefits retroactive to August 1, 2024; and new wage scale rates based on a 40-hour work week on future films. More than a third of the unit will receive immediate rate increases retroactive to January 1 of this year.
Avatar: Fire and Ash, the third movie in the franchise, will be released in December 2025, with two more films due out in 2029 and 2031.
“I want to congratulate the member of these VFX bargaining units on negotiating fair contracts that earned such strong support,” IATSE International President Matthew D. Loeb said. “After successfully organizing, negotiating, and ratifying first agreements, winning the same benefits and rights as their co-workers in other union crafts, these three bargaining units are representative of a growing movement to unionize VFX workers in North America.”
The VFX crews at Marvel and Disney filed for a unionization election with the National Labor Relations Board in August 2023. A supermajority of Marvel’s more than 50-worker crew signed authorization cards saying they want to be represented by the IATSE, while a supermajority of the 18 in-house VFX crewmembers at Walt Disney Pictures signed cards.
“This is not just a victory for our unit, but for all of the VFX industry because they now see that it is possible to achieve the seat at the table, the respect, and the more equitable payment and benefits that have been denied us for so long,” said Patrick DeVaney, a PostVis coordinator on Avatar, in IATSE’s release announcing the news. “Today is a new day for all VFX workers — Avatar is just the tip of the iceberg.”
