The Animation Guild’s Political Action League (PAL) is seeking recruits to help strengthen our committee and union. If you’re concerned with how federal and state legislation is impacting unions’ and workers’ rights, the attacks on our health plans and pensions, or the stability of important programs like Social Security and Medicare, then this is your…

For the first time in recent history, The Animation Guild delegates will be proposing not one but two resolutions at the upcoming IATSE District 2 convention in Hawai’i (June 7-9). “By doing so, we’re becoming more vocal members of the IATSE community and we’re representing our members’ concerns in an actionable way,” says Kristin Donner,…

When it comes time to negotiate your next contract, there are a lot of variables that go into determining how much you deserve to be paid: What is the average pay rate for your job title? Was your last job above or below the average? How does a non-union studio compare to the work and…

It is with great regret and sadness that we report the death of Michael Four, lead counsel for the Animation Guild (pictured above with the TAG Negotiations committee, eighth from the right). Michael spent 37 years fighting tirelessly for the rights of working people across the nation. He spent his entire career with our firm,…

Los Angeles (October 26, 2018) – The members of the Animation Guild, IATSE Local 839 (TAG), have ratified a new three-year deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). TAG membership voted decidedly in favor of ratification. Of the 1081 valid votes cast there were 868 “yes” votes (80.2%) and 213 “no”…

The California IATSE Council, of which the Animation Guild is a member, is lobbying in support of Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher’s (D-San Diego) bill AB 3080 which would end to the practice of forced arbitration clauses in employee contracts. Leaders of the #MeToo movement assert that these agreements prevent victims of sexual harassment from coming…

Last Thursday morning, the IATSE Basic negotiations concluded. While our own negotiations are still planned for August 28-30, here are the terms of the tentative IATSE Basic Agreement that most directly relate to Animation Guild members. Key Gains: No reductions to health and pension. For retirees, 13th and 14th checks continue for those that have qualified for them,…

We are hearing reports from members that the first checks in relation to the Animation Workers Antitrust Litigation have begun to arrive in the mail. These payments are from a settlement reached between the class action lawsuit and the animation studios alleged to have engaged in wage fixing. While the Animation Guild is not managing this…

The Screen Actors Guild has announced that it’s members voted 98.27% in favor of a TV Animation strike authorization. The dispute concerns the guild’s new media contract which SAG-AFTRA asserts does not pay scale wages or residuals. The intent of the vote is to give the SAG-AFTRA negotiating party leverage in their negotiations with the…

This month the Supreme Court moved to weaken unions nationwide by ruling in the Janus case that public sector employees “no longer have to pay a so-called agency fee, typically about 80 percent of union dues, if they choose not to belong to a union.” While this ruling is limited only to our comrades in the public…

The Animation Guild now has approximately 4230 artists, writers and technicians under its jurisdiction at studios in and around Los Angeles. Of these, slightly more than 25% are women. The female/male breakdowns at the Animation Guild’s larger signator studios are as follows: EMPLOYMENT BY STUDIO — WOMEN — (TOTAL EMPLOYEES) Bento Box — 17 —…

Wage stagnation is a problem for everybody, including recent college graduates. “Wage stagnation” is the term used to describe the situation many workers find themselves in – no real change in their earning power over significant periods of time. This is like getting stuck on the first rung of the ladder, unable to climb any…