Visual effects workers on Star Wars franchise productions have unionized with IATSE, the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, the union announced on Tuesday, 28 July 2026. The workers unanimously supported union membership, according to IATSE's statement. Deadline

The new bargaining unit covers U.S.-based on-set VFX professionals contributing to The Mandalorian & Grogu, Ahsoka, and Star Wars: Starfighter, among other titles. On-set visual effects workers are the crew members who handle real-time effects work during filming, as distinct from post-production VFX teams who complete shots after the cameras stop rolling. IATSE

The newly organized workers will now collectively bargain with the studio on their first contract. Collective bargaining means a union negotiates pay, hours, and working conditions on behalf of the whole unit rather than each worker negotiating individually.

IATSE International President Matthew D. Loeb issued a statement welcoming the Star Wars workers into the union. IATSE represents 170,000 technicians, artisans, and craftspersons across the entertainment industry in the United States and Canada. Deadline

This is not the first VFX group to organize under IATSE at Disney. Workers at Marvel Studios, Walt Disney Pictures, and the Avatar franchise ratified their first IATSE contracts with the studio in 2025. The Marvel Studios VFX unit had comprised more than 50 workers when it filed for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board in 2023, with a supermajority supporting the filing. IATSE

VFX job classifications in the entertainment industry have largely remained non-union since the field was pioneered during production of the first Star Wars films in the 1970s. The unionization of Star Wars VFX workers closes a circle that began with the franchise that started the craft.

For the people who build galaxy-spanning visuals, a first contract will set the terms of pay, benefits, and working conditions that individual workers could not negotiate alone. When those talks conclude will determine what the next round of Star Wars productions look like for the crews making them.