The organization traces its origin to a group of 300 VFX artists who created the "VFX Production Group" on a Slack channel in 2020.

[2][3] In 2016 after the reports of poor working conditions on Sony's Sausage Party the IATSE filed a complaint with the British Columbia Ministry of Labour's Employment Standards Branch on behalf of the artists of the films and reached out to the VFX Union to offer help.

[4][5] Amidst the 2022 and 2023 Hollywood labor disputes the organization encouraged unionization among United States and Canadian visual effects artists.

[6][3][1][2][7][8][9][10] Among the IATSE VFX Union's services is performing surveys of workers' conditions within the industry.

[6] Their poll showed that two thirds of visual effects artists surveyed believed that the current situation in the industry was unsustainable.