The Animation Guild’s members have voted to ratify the 2021-2024 Animation Guild Master Agreement. Of the valid votes cast, 87% were in favor of ratification. What’s even more impressive is the historic turnout of the vote — the number of TAG members who cast a ballot more than tripled since the last ratification vote. A temporary agreement with AMPTP was announced at the end of May.
Since the last contract cycle, Guild leadership has worked tirelessly to increase engagement, including hiring communications staff, investing in mobilization strategies and supporting member committees and member-run initiatives. The fruits of this labor were evident in the high level of engagement throughout the negotiations process including support and participation in social media campaigns that trended #1 on Twitter in both California and Los Angeles.
“This ratification vote shows that the membership has acknowledged the incredible work of our negotiations subcommittees and dedicated themselves to continuing the work. While we achieved significant gains, we were not able to reach all the priorities we set out to achieve and that our members deserve,” says Business Representative Steve Kaplan.
“The Local has dedicated itself to member engagement and open discussions about how to achieve those goals, and the membership has responded by ratifying this agreement and agreeing to support efforts to build our strength as a Union and community to give us greater leverage in the future. I must acknowledge and thank each member of the committee for their hard work over this long negotiation period and thank the leadership and staff of the Local for their never-ending support.”
Some of the key gains secured by the Negotiations Committee include:
- Establishing wage minimums for streaming derivative and original work. Programs that fell under the New Media High Budget threshold provided for freely negotiable wages. Now, derivative and original productions of at least 11-minutes in length and budgeted at $25,000 or more per minute are subject to wage minimums.
- For the first time in the history of the agreement, writers have their own job classification and a framework to build a ladder of progression. The progression has added new classifications for wage minimums, and also addresses issues related to compensation for experienced writers who are not in a supervisory role.
- Created a pathway for Union-covered remote work outside of L.A. County in an unpublished sideletter. The employers agreed that members who have been working remotely outside the state can continue to do so and be covered by the agreement under specific circumstances. This was not a mandatory subject of bargaining.
- Extended parental leave protections to address other life events, such as caring for a family member with a serious health condition.
- Retroactive wage increases.
You can retrace the progress of TAG’s #NewDeal4Animation on the Guild’s Negotiations Timeline here; and review the Memorandum of Agreement here.
The Animation Guild, also known as Local 839 of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), was founded in 1952. The labor union represents more than 5,000 artists, technicians and writers in the animation industry, advocating for workers to improve wages and conditions.
