Marvel, Disney, ‘Avatar’ VFX Workers Ratify IATSE Union Contracts

Visual effects professionals who help realize the often fantastical worlds of the Marvel, Disney and Avatar films have ratified their first union contracts.

Unionized staffers have “overwhelmingly” voted to ratify two labor contracts covering work on these projects, the crew union IATSE announced on Friday, without offering a specific tally. One agreement covers work on Marvel Studios and Walt Disney Pictures titles, while another spans labor for Walt Disney Studios subsidiary TCF US Productions 27, Inc., which collaborates with James Cameron’s Lightstorm Entertainment on the Avatar films. The Avatar deal was ratified in February, while the Marvel/Disney agreement was ratified on Wednesday.

The deals broadly offer minimum wage rates for workers, access to IATSE’s health and pension plans and meal penalties.

In a statement, Marvel VFX data wrangler Cael Liakos-Gilbert called Marvel and Disney’s deal “a much-needed win for the entire VFX industry. Liakos-Gilbert added, “We’ve proven what is possible through determination and willpower, and don’t have to speculate or be shrouded in cynicism and doubt any longer. We’ve put ink to paper and given our people the contract we deserve.”

While IATSE has so far only released general details of the agreement rather than specifics, the three-year Avatar deal notably includes the same A.I. language that IATSE secured in its 2024 contract with major studios and streamers. Avatar director Cameron, who joined the board of Stability AI in 2024, has expressed excitement about the possibilities that the technology can offer filmmakers.

The Avatar deal also offers union members preferential hiring rights on future Avatar films, new wage scale rates, annual pay increases, enforced 12-hour minimums, mandatory meal penalties and rest periods and “dismissal and displacement pay.”

The summary that IATSE has shared regarding the Marvel and Disney deal, meanwhile, makes no mention of AI. The four-year agreement provides overtime pay, a minimum hours guarantee, annual wage increases, turnaround times and rest periods equivalent to what editors enjoy, meal penalties, hazard pay and an end to “at will” employment.

The contracts’ ratification is a long time coming for VFX workers, whose industry has historically been a nonunion holdout in a largely organized business.

In 2023, about a decade after a previous failed effort to bring the industry into the union fold, IATSE began going public with organizing drives at Marvel and Disney, followed later by the TCF US Productions 27 (Avatar) effort and pushes at Saturday Night Live and Apple TV. So far, all have succeeded in unionizing, but the Marvel/Disney and Avatar deals represent the first ratified contracts.

“The road to now has been long, but very fruitful,” said Disney VFX coordinator Mack Robinson. “This agreement with Disney and Marvel is what I hope is just the first step to a broader change for the VFX industry.”