The Animation Guild Ratifies Deal With Studios
Members of the Animation Guild have overwhelmingly agreed to ratify its three-year deal with the studios.
The guild saw 76.1% of its members in favor of the contract with the AMPTP. This comes after months of negotiations with the studio reps.
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The new three-year deal – the 2024-2027 Animation Guild Master Agreement – wasn’t, however, as popular as its previous deal, signed in July 2022, which saw 87% members vote in support.
The guild said that voter turnout increased “beyond the historic turnout of last cycle’s vote”, which itself tripled the prior vote.
Among the provisions secured in the latest contract are increases to health and pension funds, wage increases, AI protections, and more. Specifically, this included 7% wage increased in the first year, 4% in the second year and 3.5% in the third. A.I. protections include written notifications and the ability to consult with the production and identify alternative non-GenAI tools. There are also increased to on-call hours and dismissal pay, new bereavement leave and additional sick days, recognition of Juneteenth as a holiday and craft-specific gains, including staffing minimums for writers and significant wins for storyboard artists, as well as increases to health and pension funds with no cuts to healthcare benefits or added costs to members.
Another unexpected point in the contract: “appropriate restroom arrangements”. The guild has fought for gender-neutral bathrooms.
“To the extent practicable, producers should make reasonable efforts to provide a gender-neutral bathroom at their owned facilities, which may include relabeling a single occupancy bathroom to be gender neutral,” the deal states.
Similarly, the union has requested producers “will make best efforts to provide menstrual products, including tampons and menstrual pads, at no cost to the employee at their owned facilities”.
The guild represents more than 5,000 artists, technicians, writers, and production workers in the animation industry including those that work on shows such as The Simpsons, Family Guy, Solar Opposites and Ricky and Morty.
Studios covered include 20th Television Animation, Bento Box, Dreamworks Animation, Marvel, Netflix, Nickelodeon, Sony Pictures Animation, Walt Disney Animation Studios and Warner Bros. Animation.
The deal runs through July 31, 2027.
There were a number of high-profile holdouts including Mike Rianda (The Mitchells vs. The Machines), Joey Clift (Paw Patrol) and Kelly Lynne D’Angelo (Spirit Rangers), who said that they were concerned about the A.I. provisions.
“I want to recognize the incredible work that the Negotiations Committee put into seeing this agreement reached and ratified,” says TAG Business Representative Steve Kaplan. “This agreement is the next step forward in our goal to create the strongest contract for our members. The advancements made here are plenty, but there is also much work to be done with regard to addressing the priority matters that were not fully answered. The membership made clear to us that there is a need for more focus on Generative Artificial Intelligence, and we will attack the issue through a multi-faceted approach including lobbying for effective legislation, advocating for tax incentives for human-made work, and grieving against potential abuses.”
The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producerd said in a statement: “The AMPTP member companies congratulate The Animation Guild, including its leadership, its bargaining committee and its membership on the ratification of this new three-year deal. The many talented and creative employees represented by The Animation Guild will immediately enjoy historic gains in wages, protections and other important improvements for their craft,”
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