Last Monday, Aug. 5, 2019, Congressman Adam Schiff met with a group of Union organizers and representatives to discuss upcoming legislation, the importance of voting and concerns within the entertainment community. Schiff asked the question, “What is America?” Reminding those gathered to consider our collective values and understand what is at stake in the 2020…

The Storyboard Committee is launching a new Craft Representative Program. We’re focusing on Storyboard Artists at three studios to test out this pilot program: Cartoon Network, Bento Box Entertainment and DreamWorks.  The goal is to find a Craft Rep volunteer on each show within each studio. In addition to Shop Stewards who can answer questions…

Today, five members/employees of Local 839 will be sworn in as delegates to the LA County Federation of Labor and next month another five will be sworn in to fill a total of 10 spots. Delegates include Robert St. Pierre, Leslie Simmons, Ruolin Li, Steve Kaplan, Lars Ingelman, Charlotte Jackson, Emily Walus, Jeanette King, Joseph Statom and Scott Carpenter. Every month, pursuant to their constitution,…

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…

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…

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…

… gender-wise. The Animation Guild now has 3,794 artists, writers and technicians working under its jurisdiction at studios in and around Los Angeles. Of these, slightly more than 23% are women. The female/male breakdowns at the Animation Guild’s larger signator studios are as follows: … EMPLOYMENT BY STUDIO — WOMEN — (TOTAL EMPLOYEES) Cartoon Network…

THE 2015-2018 ANIMATION GUILD CONTRACT We are now twelve months into the latest Animation Guild contract, one of the best the Guild has negotiated in long time. 365 days ago: There are no rollbacks in wage minimums, and TAG negotiated higher contribution hours for storyboard artists working under “unit rates”, as well as improved hours…