Apple Said No, But Its VFX Workers Said Yes, Voting 12-0 To Unionize With IATSE

After Apple Studios refused to voluntarily recognize its VFX workers’ union, the group has secured its first collective bargaining agreement with IATSE, more than two years after launching its unionization push.

Here are the details:

• The contract establishes minimum pay rates for every covered title, with annual increases tied to those negotiated under the IATSE-AMPTP Basic Agreement. Workers also secured minimum-hour guarantees and pay for all hours worked.
• Overtime protections cover holidays as well as sixth and seventh consecutive workdays.
• Apple will provide employer-paid Motion Picture Industry health care and pension benefits, along with contributions to a defined-contribution retirement savings plan. Health and retirement contributions are retroactive to hours worked since January 1, 2026.
• The agreement includes the AI protections contained in IATSE’s Basic Agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.
• Workers secured daily and weekly turnaround and rest protections comparable to those covering editorial crews, as well as meal penalties when required breaks are missed.
• The contract also provides additional compensation for hazardous working conditions on set.

The agreement concludes a unionization effort that began in June 2024, when a supermajority of 17 in-house Apple Studios VFX workers signed authorization cards seeking IATSE representation. The bargaining unit included VFX production supervisors, managers and coordinators, production artists, witness camera operators, on-set personnel, and data wranglers working across six Apple productions.

After Apple did not voluntarily recognize the union, the workers went through a National Labor Relations Board election. Twelve ballots were cast in August 2024, all in favor of joining IATSE.

At the time, the vote represented another step in IATSE’s broader campaign to organize an area of film and television production that historically had little union representation. Marvel Studios VFX workers became the first all-VFX bargaining unit to unionize with IATSE in 2023, followed shortly afterward by their counterparts at Walt Disney Pictures. IATSE has since negotiated the first contracts covering VFX workers at Disney, Marvel, and the Avatar films.

IATSE International President Matthew D. Loeb said in a release:

“For too long, visual effects workers have powered some the industry’s biggest productions without the union protections afforded to many of their colleagues. It is long past time to fix that. By standing together, Apple Studios VFX workers have secured a strong first contract with enforceable standards, quality  benefits, meaningful rest, and protections as new technology changes the industry.”

The Apple agreement represents another expansion of organized labor within the VFX sector, where workers have increasingly pushed for many of the wage, benefit, and working-condition protections long established in other areas of film and television production.