IATSE appears to have succeeded in unionizing another group of visual effects workers.
Twelve workers on several Apple Studios shows voted unanimously to join the union in a National Labor Relations Board ballot count that took place on Tuesday afternoon, an NLRB spokesperson told The Hollywood Reporter and IATSE confirmed. IATSE and Apple now have five business days to raise any objections before the election results are certified, but the employer is required to begin negotiating with the union.
“I couldn’t be more thankful to our organizers for bringing yet another victory to VFX workers,” Apple Studios VFX production manager Nick DeGrazia said in a statement. “I hope that we can continue this wave across the entire industry so we can share the benefits, rights and respect we deserve.”
As THR previously reported, the visual effects crew members in question are employed on six Apple Studios LLC shows — Bubbi, Jiminy, Foxtrot, Government Cheese, Surface and Black Bird — in roles like VFX production assistant, VFX witness camera operator and VFX on-set supervisor. According to IATSE, Apple and the union are still disputing whether VFX production supervisors/managers can be included in the bargaining unit; these workers were allowed to vote “under challenge” in the NLRB proceedings, but were not included in the ultimate “yes” vote tally.
THR has reached out to Apple for comment on Tuesday’s ballot count results.
The Apple Studios election marks the latest success for IATSE in its attempt to push into the largely non-union visual effects world. Within the last two years, the union has brought in-house visual effects crews at Marvel and Walt Disney Pictures into its fold following a failed effort to organize the community a decade earlier. The labor group also this year unionized workers employed at a Disney subsidiary and who work on the Avatar films.
According to IATSE, the workers are keen to address wages, working conditions and benefits issues in a first contract. “We deserve rights and representation equal to others in our industry,” VFX lead data wrangler Liam Mazarra said in a statement as the union went public with its Apple drive in June. Added VFX coordinator Valerie Wicks, “Apple is a wonderful place to work, so I participated [in the union drive] partly to keep it that way… But most of all, I participated for the greater goal of unionizing all of VFX, across every studio. That’s the dream, and we are now one step closer.”
Per IATSE international president Matthew Loeb, unionizing more of the visual effects industry is certainly the union’s goal. “The VFX union movement has been decades in the making, and now is the time,” Loeb said in a statement on Tuesday. “We will continue to relentlessly support VFX workers in negotiating a fair first contract that addresses their collective needs and concerns, and we urge the entire entertainment labor community to stand with them as well.”
