Re:Microsoft Workers to Form Company’s First Union in the U.S.
by dmitriid on Wednesday January 04, 2023 @04:14PM
(#34251756)
> But at least the unions guarantee certain things like
Except in VFX which is as young as gaming industry and suffers from the same problems.
Re:Microsoft Workers to Form Company’s First Union in the U.S.
by thebradbain on Wednesday January 04, 2023 @06:04PM
(#34253255)
Well, unfortunately the major VFX houses today are not unionized. There used to be some, but Marvel opened the floodgates to contracting out major VFK work to non-union companies.
I imagine this will be added to the list of grievances animators historically have had with the lack of union protections in recent years, and used as a negotiation chip in the next round of strikes. After all, union films and tv shows cannot use non-union actors or crews in most cases. I imagine there will be a similar rule made that union productions cannot work with non-union vfx agencies, eventually.
Every time, if someone in gaming has the opportunity to take a gig in entertainment, they will choose the entertainment gig.
The industries are very similar, but due to how they evolved they are each a mirror image of the other had each taken a different path to labor organizing. Hollywood was (and in many ways still is) THE most exploitative industry when it came to profit sharing, dangerous+stressful+long working conditions, etc. But at least the unions guarantee certain things like breaks and time off, healthy pay floors (e.g. an entry level writer on a tv show will make $120k that year if they work 8 months, $70k if they work 6 months, etc), health insurance between gigs, a pension, etc, even to their minimum wage workers. Gaming workers can have this too if they realize the profitable game studios literally cannot make a profit without their labor, and organize en masse accordingly.