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The movie was about a sausage who finds out he’s headed for the barbecue, but some of the animators who made it are saying they’re the ones who got burned.

A dispute between animators and the Vancouver producers of the raunchy comedy hit Sausage Party has turned a light on the larger situation facing workers at Vancouver’s more than 60 visual-effects and animation companies.

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Visual effects and animation artists are the only non-union players in B.C.’s heavily unionized film industry. Everyone on a live-action film set, from the director to the person pushing the broom, is covered by a union contract, while the thousands of artists who add digital effects to those films aren’t.

So while the 120 animators who worked on Sausage Party did so without a collective agreement, the actors who voiced the movie’s characters, from star Seth Rogen to the lesser-known local voice talents, were covered by a union deal guaranteeing overtime provisions and minimum rates.