The announcement was made Tuesday that VFX employees at Apple Studios have decisively voted to unionize with IATSE through a NLRB election. This victory is just one more step towards establishing industry-wide unionization for VFX workers in the entertainment field.

The votes were in favor of unionizing, with twelve ballots showing support. These employees, who hold critical roles on six shows produced by Apple Studios, have voiced a strong desire for better pay, benefits, and working conditions.

IATSE has traditionally represented a variety of positions in the motion picture and television industry, including Production Designers/Art Directors, Camera Operators, Sound, Editors, Hair and Makeup Artists, Costumes/Wardrobe, Script Supervisors, Grips, Lighting, Props, and Paint. However, workers in VFX classifications have not been historically included in this representation.

The Apple VFX team consists of various roles, such as VFX Associate Production Managers, Senior and regular VFX Coordinators, VFX Assistant Coordinators, VFX Production Assistants, VFX Witness Camera Operators, and in-house Compositors and Virtual Art Directors serving as VFX Production Artists. Additionally, the unit includes on-set Supervisors and Production Supervisors/Managers, Lead VFX professionals, Data Wranglers of different levels (VFX Data Wranglers and Jr. Data Wranglers).

Apple disputed the inclusion of VFX Production Supervisors/Managers in the proposed bargaining unit initially filed by IATSE for the election in June. The NLRB granted these workers the right to vote "under challenge," but their ballots were not counted or included in the 12 affirmative votes.

Following the unanimous decision of VFX employees to unionize, the next course of action for Apple's VFX division is to engage in negotiations with Apple for a fair and equitable first contract.