Visual effects workers at “Saturday Night Live” have unanimously voted to ratify their first union contract after organizing with IATSE at the start of the NBC show’s 50th season last October.
Among the terms negotiated in the IATSE contract include minimum wage rates and health benefits, “kill fees” for VFX artists hired for sketches that are cancelled before completion and artificial intelligence protections.
“The VFX team is proud to be officially part of IATSE,” Hannah S. Kim, one of the lead organizers, said. “We are excited to join the large union presence at ‘SNL’ and hope this inspires the rest of the VFX and animation industries across the country to follow suit. I personally am so happy to see my fellow artists be protected under a union, and look forward to the future of this team under a bargaining unit.”
“SNL” has been the site of a great deal of crew worker organization in recent years. In 2023, post-production editors unionized with IATSE’s Motion Picture Editors Guild and threatened to strike the show after contract negotiations stalled. A deal was swiftly reached afterwards on a contract that included pay raises of as much as 60% to increase editors’ wages to industry standard.
“SNL” employs a team of 15 VFX workers whose primary job is post-production work on the “digital shorts” that are aired in-between the sketches and musical performances that are performed live from New York. Since the digital shorts are often conceived and shot the week prior to their airdate, VFX workers for the show can have as little as 12 hours to do their work.
“Over the six seasons I’ve worked at ‘SNL,’ I’ve seen the VFX department evolve from a small group to a tightly integrated, highly organized operation capable of delivering hundreds of demanding shots over a 24-hour period. It’s an intense, collaborative and extremely fun environment that constantly tests the limits of our skills, our versatility, and, after long days staring at a screen, our ability to form coherent sentences,” VFX artist Richard Lampasone said in a statement when the group first organized.
While the VFX team did not threaten to strike as their editor counterparts did, the team sent a petition to NBC and the “Saturday Night Live” producers and wore IATSE shirts on set to call on management to complete contract negotiations before season 50 of the show ended. Management responded and a deal was reached ahead of the show’s May 17 finale.
'SNL' VFX Workers Unionize With IATSE
“Thanks to the hard work of all the members of the ‘SNL’ VFX team and our new friends with IATSE, we have accomplished something pretty incredible,” VFX worker David Torres Eber said. “At a breakneck speed we have ratified our first union contract for a VFX team in New York City. Hopefully just the first of many!”
IATSE has made unionizing VFX workers a primary focus in recent years at a time when artificial intelligence is set to overhaul that sector of the post-production pipeline along with many others. While the vast majority of VFX workers are employed by third party vendors hired by studios for film and TV projects, IATSE has unionized in-house artists at Marvel Studios and Walt Disney Pictures as well as at Lightstorm Entertainment, the company owned by James Cameron that produces the “Avatar” films.
