The Animation Guild (IATSE Local 839) has completed its first week of negotiations on a new labor contract and will return to talks with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers on Sept. 16.
In a memo sent Monday, TAG says that its negotiating committee spent the past week exchanging and reviewing proposals with the AMPTP. While there were some subjects that the two sides reached a tentative agreement on, the union says that they “remain far apart on key issues affecting animation workers.”
The guild’s negotiating committee has agreed to extend the expiration date of the current contract with the AMPTP to Sept. 20.
“We came to the negotiations with a list of concerns and changes prioritized by TAG members. It is disappointing, but not surprising, that we could not get meaningful responses back for all the issues we shared in the first week,” business representative Steve Kaplan said in a statement. “The Negotiations Committee looks forward to resuming our discussions in September when we expect the AMPTP will provide substantive responses and be prepared to make the necessary changes animation workers are asking for.”
Among the issues facing animation workers are artificial intelligence protections, outsourcing of jobs to nonunion studios outside the U.S., freelance wages for writers that are less than half of what live action writers earn under the Writers Guild, and pressure to perform additional tasks outside of the job description without further compensation.
In the wake of last year’s WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, the Animation Guild has worked to get more of its members engaged in contract talks through surveys, town hall meetings and rallies. Two weeks ago, the guild drew more than 2,500 members and allies to a Burbank rally, more than double the estimated 1,000 that gathered for a similar rally held before the start of contract talks in 2022.
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