IATSE, the Teamsters and the Hollywood Basic Crafts will host a pre-negotiations kickoff rally on Sunday, March 3, 2024 at Woodley Park in Los Angeles.
Disney & Marvel VFX artists are unionizing with IATSE!
“Today’s unanimous victory shows that VFX workers everywhere have a clear path to winning a meaningful say about their working conditions and quality of life,” IATSE VFX Organizer Mark Patch, said in a statement to press “We’ll be continuing our work to win a great contract, but we need to bring every studio and vendor in line to bring those union standards to all VFX workers."
#IATSE's #contract expires next summer, and if the issue of #residuals for the "#creatives" is resolved fairly, that could help the "below the line" workers when it's their time to negotiate with the #studios.
via @WGAeast: The #WGAstrike Resource Hub has been updated to include more info on available aid for WGA members & entertainment industry workers affected by the work stoppage, and ways for allies to support. Access via the QR code or wgaea.st/StrikeSupport 🪧
BREAKING: Marvel Studios’ Visual Effects (VFX) Workers UNANIMOUSLY voted in favor of unionizing with IATSE in a labor board election. This marks the first time a unit of solely VFX Workers has unionized with IATSE since VFX was pioneered nearly a half-century ago.
The Aug. 9 #SAGAFTRAstrike rally at #Boston Common was a success thanks to many #sagaftra members & staff who worked to coordinate the program’s #amazing speakers, #IATSE members who helped set up the media dais & run sound, and the many #BTU, #WGA, #AFLCIO, #Teamsters, and other #unions and #union members who came to support efforts for fair wages, reasonable compensation, and image protections. I was glad to contribute in singing “Solidarity Forever”, enhanced by the fabulous #BABAM musicians.
Hopefully this is just the beginning, and VFX workers across the US/Canada and around the world will start unionizing. We have long lacked representation.
“The issue will be central for… IATSE…too: if producers cut down on the number of real performers in a project, they’ll want to cut down on costume designers, hair & makeup artists, & other below-the-line workers also. Actors fear that without sufficient protections, they will effectively lose control of their faces, their voices, & their bodies.”
If you were wondering why you are getting all this news and coverage during a writer's and Actors strike.
Well funny story, Animation Writers aren't members of those unions.
The glacial Animation turn around means you need the actors much later in the production or their voices are already in the can before animation was even started (depending on production style)
So look new DC toon movies from WarnerBros Discovery, new Animated StarTrek from Paramount, Marvel etc
Here is an excellent splainer from 2 writers & directors who do both live action and animation scriptwork discussing pay differences and the collective bargaining power dillution imposed by Warner and Disney way baaaack in the day...
How many different #union signs do YOU see in this photo from today’s rally? I count #wga#sagaftra#iatse#theanimationguild TAG in support of #local11 hotel workers strike. Unions looking for basic rights and fair wages support one another. #unionstrong ✊🏽🪧✊🏽
The backstage union has reached a tentative agreement on its Pink Contract with The Broadway League and Disney Theatrical, which will now be voted on by union membership. The 11th-hour deal will prevent a Broadway and national tour strike that could have begun July 21.....
While we are all talking about #union activity in the entertainment industry, #IATSE has an open public petition to #Disney to pressure them to voluntarily recognize membership in IATSE local 839, The Animators Guild, for its animation studios Production Coordinators, Production Managers, and Production Supervisors. https://iatse.net/online-action/disney-production/
The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) has called a strike authorisation vote following unsuccessful negotiations with The Broadway League and Disney Theatrical, collectively representing Broadway and national tour producers. Union members have until early 21 July (New York time) to vote, which could...
Worker/artist owned cooperative — with distribution, to tell their own stories. Images below.
Workers, writers, and artists start a cooperative production company
They license/option existing stories to the company (which they own together!) and put stories on a website where audiences can access them
Stories can be scripts, treatments, readings, storyboards — it's great material in those formats, and people will dive into those stories just the same
Share the website (distribution!) with followings, along with a way to subscribe
You now have a worker/writer/artist owned cooperative, with distribution, stories, and an audience!
More details in the images below, made as a guide/resource to be helpful.
The 2022 King Soopers strike (#UFCW Local 7)? 98% in retail, 97% in meat.
The 2021 #IATSE strike authorization vote? 98% of the 90% who voted
When you hear someone talk about how this is "the union" they are trying to treat the union as a third party that is stepping between the workers and the bosses.
100 #Animators quit during filming for #SpiderManAcrossTheSpiderVerse, who were required to work 7 days/week, 11 hrs/day to make deadlines. Producers repeatedly required changes to already-animated sequences, making for a whole new "level of craziness."
(Payment for animators is usually by scene. So if you have to remake a mostly completed scene 5 times, your hourly pay is 1/5th of what it originally was.)
I wish I could remember where I got them (somewhere on facebook), but these demonstrate just one of the (many, many) ways you can hurt the effort by acting on your own.
Let those who are putting the most on the line lead. Let them tell you what to do. Let their elected organization do it.
IATSE Strike Averted With Tentative Agreement; Broadway and National Tours to Continue as Scheduled (playbill.com)
The backstage union has reached a tentative agreement on its Pink Contract with The Broadway League and Disney Theatrical, which will now be voted on by union membership. The 11th-hour deal will prevent a Broadway and national tour strike that could have begun July 21.....
IATSE Calls Strike Authorization Vote, Could Halt Broadway and Touring Shows as Soon as Friday (playbill.com)
The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) has called a strike authorisation vote following unsuccessful negotiations with The Broadway League and Disney Theatrical, collectively representing Broadway and national tour producers. Union members have until early 21 July (New York time) to vote, which could...