VFX workers for “Saturday Night Live” have unionized with the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE).
The group, which includes 16 VFX artists and leads, unanimously signed cards supporting unionizing with IATSE, winning official recognition of their union, IATSE announced Monday. The workers focus on VFX work within “SNL’s” pre-recorded digital shorts, including last week’s “My Best Friend’s House” music
video featuring Ariana Grande, which require staffers to work under extremely tight deadlines.
The “SNL” VFX team isn’t the only one on the hallowed NBC show that IATSE has recently unionized. In October 2022, IATSE successfully organized the show’s editors, who reached a deal on their first labor contract after threatening to go on the first show-specific strike in “SNL” history in March 2023. Like the editors’ process, NBCUniversal management agreed to recognize the VFX workers’ union after the group presented their signed authorization cards, which reflected the unanimous decision to unionize.
“Our work, like that of everyone else above and below the line, is critical to the show’s success,” VFX artist Richard Lampasone said in a statement, adding that the “intense” environment “constantly tests the limits of our skills, our versatility, and, after long days staring at a screen, our ability to form coherent sentences.” “We look forward to celebrating Season 50 by joining in ‘SNL’s’ decades-long tradition of supporting union labor, and to helping negotiate a contract that reflects the substantial value we add and makes ours a more accessible and sustainable career for years to come.”
Over the past several years, IATSE has implemented a campaign to unionize visual effects workers, who are among the few major classifications of below-the-line workers that have not been organized into Hollywood labor. The union was successful recently in bringing the in-house artists at Walt Disney Pictures, Marvel Studios and James Cameron’s Lightstorm, producers of the “Avatar” films, into the fold, and earlier this year, VFX artists at Apple announced their intent to unionize.
'SNL' VFX Workers Unionize With IATSE
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