jazz tankai
The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees released a study Wednesday that found that visual effects workers do not have access to portable health insurance or retirement plans.
of survey found Only 12% of visual effects workers on the “client side” of the business have a work-to-work health insurance plan. Another 45% received medical care only for the duration of the project, and 43% had no health insurance at all.
The union announced the results as it launched a campaign to organize unrepresented VFX workers. The survey also highlighted the lack of other benefits associated with union work, such as employer-sponsored retirement plans, rest and rest periods, and overtime pay. Research has found that some workers at the bottom end of the pay scale barely make minimum wage when unpaid overtime is factored in.
The study differentiated between “client-side” VFX workers working in production companies and “vendor-side” workers working in effects houses. Employee benefits on the vendor side are somewhat better, with 25% having access to portable health insurance and 47% having employer-sponsored retirement plans.
On the client side, research found that only 15% have an employer willing to pay for retirement.
At a virtual press conference held Wednesday, IATSE leaders and a handful of vfx industry veterans detailed harsh working conditions at many stores and stressed the need for collective bargaining.
“When I moved[from animation]to visual effects, I didn’t get any benefit,” says vfx veteran Maggie Kraisamtl, who says she doesn’t like the health care provided by her employer while she works in animation. I mentioned that I had received “Most visual effects I know he’s a worker in the industry where he barely survives five years.”
Gabrielle Levesque, who works as a vfx data wrangler, says she’s had many jobs where she had to work 10 hours straight before she got her first meal break. “These are the structural challenges her vfx workers face,” she said.
IATSE leaders noted that VFX and many aspects of film and television post-production work are the last areas of the ununified production community. There have been past organizing movements that have struggled to gain momentum in a sector made up of many small and medium-sized employers. It is widespread all over the world because it means you can.
Motion graphics and 3D animation expert Mark Patch says vfx artists are increasingly facing hazardous working conditions for a number of reasons, and they continually spend time training their inexperienced colleagues. He says he has a lot to give up. The lack of industry-wide uniform standards in software tools, production formats, and producer expectations only complicates the situation.
“The lack of standardization across the industry means that these workers essentially have to become experts overnight,” says Patch.
Ben Speight, organizer of the Animation Guild under IATSE, said that today’s broader cultural environment offers a more favorable environment for organizing than in years past. “Previous efforts were done as an advocacy/activist-like model,” Speight said. “We’re moving from protest to power.”
Research and data, such as wage surveys, would help build goodwill and bring urgency to the need for union representation, Speight argued. , is building a global movement to keep employers from taking their operations overseas and slowing union activity in the United States.
“This giveaway is a historic opportunity to build the global VFX movement. We deserve democracy in the workplace,” he said.
Patch noted that recent successes by the Animation Guild show that the post-production community is ready to embrace organized labor. Animation and visual effects are “a growth industry in 21st century entertainment,” Patch said. “This is vital to the future of entertainment production.”
