Slashdot: Disney VFX Workers File For Union Election

Disney VFX Workers File For Union Election
Published on August 29, 2023 at 02:30AM
Walt Disney Pictures' VFX team filed for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board on Monday. As Motherboard notes, the filing "marks the second time in history that workers in the visual effects industry have announced their intent to organize -- the first being Marvel VFX workers, who did so three weeks prior." From the report: The Walt Disney Pictures workers, who are behind the visual effects in movies like the live-action Aladdin and Pirates of the Caribbean, plan to join the VFX Union, a new branch of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), which represents much of the entertainment industry behind the scenes. Their filing comes after over 80 percent of the 18 in-house VFX crewmembers at Walt Disney Pictures in Los Angeles signed cards demonstrating their desire to unionize, according to a press release by the union. "Today, courageous visual effects workers at Walt Disney Pictures overcame the fear and silence that have kept our community from having a voice on the job for decades," said Mark Patch, a IATSE VFX union organizer, in a statement. "With an overwhelming supermajority of these crews demanding an end to 'the way VFX has always been,' this is a clear sign that our campaign is not about one studio or corporation. It's about VFX workers across the industry using the tools at our disposal to uplift ourselves and forge a better path forward."

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