The Motion Picture Editors Guild (IATSE Local 700), announced on Tuesday that it has ratified a new bargaining agreement with Nickelodeon Animation that includes wage increases ranging from 9% to as much as 70% over the next year.
The deal for the 70 post-production workers at Nickelodeon comes after six months of contract negotiations as the Editors Guild sought a contract for its members with pay on the same level of that at other major animation studios. A deal was reached in late August, days after a union meeting in which the bargaining committee expressed their willingness to hold a strike authorization vote if talks dragged on.
Along with the wage increases, Nickelodeon post-production workers will also see improvements in sick days, overtime, rest periods, paid time off, and dismissal pay. Wage increases beyond this year will be determined by IATSE’s upcoming negotiations on the Hollywood Basic Agreement next summer.
“Witnessing this kind of solidarity throughout this challenging process was awe-inspiring,” Editors Guild national executive director Cathy Repola said in a statement. “It was such an honor for our team to represent them and to help them achieve a contract they are proud of. The negotiating committee needs to be commended, they spoke with a single voice and a single vision and vowed that no one would be left behind. In the end, nobody was.”
The animation editors’ new contract comes amid an unprecedented wave of labor action in Hollywood, most notably the ongoing actors and writers’ strike. The two guilds are picketing over a range of nearly identical issues that include the increasingly precarious position members face in the workplace, inadequate residuals in the streaming era, and ensuring so-called “artificial intelligence” software isn’t used to replace human labor.
The strike began May 2 when, the Writers Guild says, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers walked away from negotiations, and it has now lasted 140 days. But WGA and AMPTP, which represents Hollywood studios in negotiations with the guilds are resuming negotiations on Wednesday after a monthlong break, sparking hope from within and without Hollywood an end may be in sight.
For all of TheWrap’s WGA strike coverage, read here.
