Visual effects workers at “Saturday Night Live” have unanimously voted to ratify their first union contract after organizing with the IATSE at the start of the NBC show’s 50th season last October.
Among the terms negotiated in the IATSE contract are minimum wage rates and health benefits, “kill rates” for VFX artists hired for sketches that are canceled before completion, and artificial intelligence protections.
“The VFX team is proud to officially be a part of IATSE,” said Hannah S. Kim, one of the lead organizers. “We’re thrilled to be a part of the large union presence at ‘SNL,’ and we hope it inspires the rest of the VFX and animation industries across the country to follow suit. Personally, I’m thrilled to see my fellow artists protected under a union, and we look forward to the future of this team under a unified bargaining system.”
“SNL” has been the site of a major organizing movement among crew members in recent years. In 2023, post-production editors unionized with the IATSE Film Editors Guild and threatened to strike the show after contract negotiations stalled. A settlement was quickly reached on a contract that included pay raises of up to 60% to bring editors’ salaries up to industry standards.
“SNL” employs a team of 15 VFX workers, whose main job is post-production work on the “digital shorts” that air between sketches and musical performances, which are performed live in New York City. Because digital shorts are often conceived and filmed the week before their air date, the show’s VFX workers may only have 12 hours to complete 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 Lampasona said in a statement when the group first organized.
While the VFX team didn’t threaten to strike like their editor colleagues, the team sent a petition to NBC and the producers of “Saturday Night Live” and wore IATSE shirts on set to urge management to conclude contract negotiations before the show’s 50th season ended. Management responded, and a deal was reached before the show’s May 17 finale.
“Thanks to the hard work of everyone on the ‘SNL’ VFX team and our new friends at IATSE, we’ve accomplished something incredible,” said VFX worker David Torres Eber. “With lightning speed, we’ve ratified our first union contract for a VFX team in New York City. Hopefully, just the first of many!”
IATSE has made uniting VFX workers a primary focus in recent years, at a time when artificial intelligence is set to overhaul this sector of the post-production pipeline, along with many others. While the vast majority of VFX workers are employed by third-party vendors contracted by studios for film and television projects, IATSE has unionized in-house artists at Marvel Studios and Walt Disney Pictures, as well as at Lightstorm Entertainment, the James Cameron-owned company that produces the “Avatar” films.
