It’s hard to pin down the exact size of the visual effects (VFX) workforce that powers the Marvel cinematic universe and other VFX-heavy productions. Studio Hog, an effects and gaming directory site, estimates that there are 582 VFX houses globally, comprising somewhere between 31,000 and 117,000 workers. The field has expanded exponentially since the 1990s, when it consisted of a few hundred workers.

Yet VFX work is not unionized. That leaves these employees under the same pressures as their unionized counterparts but without the organization to rectify workplace issues.

To take just one example: some VFX workers on Marvel’s recent film, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, say that they worked eighty-hour weeks for months on end because of understaffing and an unrealistic deadline. Others who have worked on Marvel projects attest to similar overwork. A subset of VFX workers, aided by the 160,0000-member International Alliance of Theater and Stage Employees (IATSE) that represents other entertainment workers, hopes to do something about it.