According to Article Nine, Section 1(e), any changes to TAG dues must be decided by a secret ballot vote of Active members in Good Standing at a regular or special General Membership Meeting.  The Dues Proposal Vote will take place at the General Membership Meeting on Mar. 31st will begin promptly at 5 p.m. and the Dues Vote take place electronically at the meeting. It is estimated that voting will begin around 6 p.m. after opening business, but we cannot guarantee this time. In order to vote, you must be present at the meeting once the conversation to begin the vote starts. Once this conversation begins, the meeting will close to new participants. Late arrivals will not be able to enter the vote. This is to preserve the integrity of the voting process and ensure we comply with our Constitution and By-Laws.

In order to vote you must:

• Be an Active Member in Good Standing.
• Attend the General Membership Meeting on March 31st  (in person or virtually).
• Have a smartphone, tablet or laptop to cast your vote.
• Arrive at 5 p.m. before voting begins.

Voting will take place electronically at the meeting.
When voting begins:

1. All attendees (virtual and in-person) will be counted.
2. Each attendee will receive an email from the American Arbitration Association.
3. The email will contain a secure voting link and a unique pin
4. Attendees will use that link and unique pin to cast their votes.

Each member will receive a unique voting pin to ensure confidentiality.

During the voting process at the March 31st, 2026 General Membership Meeting, your ballot will be sent via SendGrid. To make sure that it is successfully delivered to your inbox, please whitelist the following SendGrid details in your email system:

General Whitelisting Instructions:

• Log in to your email server’s administration
• Navigate to the “Whitelist” or “Safe Senders”
• Add the following to your whitelist:
  • Our domain: *.adr.org
  • Sender IP Address: 245.36.87
  • SendGrid DKIM domain: *.sendgrid.net
  • Sender Email Address: AAAElections@adr.org

For Specific Email Platforms:

• Microsoft Exchange or Office 365:
  • Open the Exchange Admin
  • Go to “Protection” > “Spam “
  • Edit the default spam filter
  • Under “Allow Lists,” add the IP address 245.36.87 and *.sendgrid.net.
• Google Workspace (Gmail):
  • Log in to Google Admin
  • Go to “Apps” > “Google Workspace” > “Gmail” > “Spam, Phishing, and “
  • Add *.sendgrid.net to the “Email Whitelist”

Additional Recommendations:

• Add AAAElections@adr.org to your organization’s address
• Monitor spam/junk folders to ensure your ballot is not mistakenly

Two votes will take place at the GMM:

• Vote 1: New Dues Structure Implemented over 3 years
  Requires a Simple majority vote
  The first vote would ask the membership to approve the new dues structure which includes: new payment tiers; a three-year rollout; and the recommended rate increases. Learn more here.

• Vote 2: Constitutional Change after Year 3
  Requires a two-thirds vote
  The second vote would focus on a Constitutional change that would allow dues to be adjusted annually based on the wage increase percentage negotiated in the Master Agreement.

The new language for ARTICLE NINE: Revenues Section 1. DUES would add a new paragraph (e):

(e) Starting in 2029, dues shall be increased annually by the same amount as the increase to the wage minimums in the collective agreement with the Alliance of Motion Pictures and Television Producers.

If you are currently on Withdrawal or Suspended, you can reinstate your membership by 5 p.m. PST on Mar. 26, 2026 to be eligible to vote. Email membership@tag839.org to begin the process.

In the past 50 years, TAG has raised dues only twice in 1985 and 2016. Over the last decade, the Guild’s membership has grown substantially. Additional resources are needed to support more members, more contract negotiations, and expand organizing efforts. Plus, TAG’s dues are significantly lower than that of almost every other entertainment union. On average, your dues are 61% lower than other IATSE Locals. Despite our limited funds, we:

• Increased the number of staff from five (in 2017) to 18 to address your workplace issues and support your needs.
• Devoted significant resources to address grievances and contract violations to ensure you receive the pay, benefits, and fair treatment you deserve.
• Invested in organizing in order to expand union protections to animation workers across the U.S. and discourage outsourcing.
• Engaged in longer and substantial contract negotiations to increase your pay and benefits.
• Increased the programs and benefits available to you including the expansion of committees and groups (from zero to more than 20!), panel discussions, events, and more.

To continue doing this important work—which includes adding more Labor Representatives on the ground to work with members and legal support for contract negotiations and further organizing efforts—we need additional funding.

When you pay your dues, TAG does not keep all of that money. We are a Local union under our International parent union, IATSE, and we are required to pay IATSE a “Per Capita Tax” per member. The Per Capita Tax is included in your quarterly dues so you don’t need to pay it separately, and any increases are Constitutionally mandated. This fee funds the International’s operations, including Local support, educational programs, legal fees and advocacy, and national organizing—all of which benefit TAG. We recently sent out information about the 2026 Per Capita Tax. Read more here.

In 1985, quarterly dues were increased by about $15. This rate remained the same until 2016, when the Executive Board passed a motion to recommend that annual dues be raised $25 quarterly, to be phased in over the next four years.  This motion was voted on and passed by TAG membership. 

On average union members earn 20% more than their non-unionized counterparts, and dues pay for the resources to support these gains and protect your rights. What do dues cover? The day-to-day costs of maintaining a strong union:

• Organizing resources to expand union protections and to improve wages and benefits in competing workplaces so your wages and benefits aren’t eroded. This also discourages outsourcing!
• Contract enforcement to ensure you are protected and receive the benefits and pay you deserve.
• Legal and compliance consultants for negotiations, tax filings, and more to strengthen our power at the bargaining table.
• Staff salaries to support your needs and facilitate operations.
• Building and maintenance expenses including property taxes, utilities, and insurance.
• Member outreach and engagement such as committee and event support, conferences and conventions, and more so you can participate in your Union.
• Advocacy efforts such as sending members to speak with Congress about critical issues including tax incentives and AI legislation to help create and keep animation jobs locally.
• IATSE Per Capita Taxes and fees for labor associations such as the AFL-CIO and the California Federation for Labor Unions.
• Operational expenses such as supplies and equipment, IT support, office software/applications, and more.

Currently, the revenue that TAG gets from dues does not cover all of the union’s expenses. We’ve expanded organizing efforts, engaged in longer, more protracted negotiations, and added important resources to manage a union our size, so an adjustment is necessary to maintain the Union’s operational needs. We also must continue growing in strength. Funding from additional dues revenue will be used for:

• Additional Field Representatives to work with TAG members and developing Shop Stewards to ensure members are protected and their contracts are enforced.
• Legal support and other experts to ensure successful contract negotiations and contract enforcement.
• Office and meeting spaces for TAG members in newly-organized states such as New York and Texas.
• Continued investment in technology to allow TAG members easier access to their Union.

TAG’s dues are significantly lower than that of almost every other entertainment union. On average, your dues are 61% lower than other Locals, including Art Directors, Grips, Editors, and Costume Designers. In fact, our own TAG staff, which recently unionized, pays higher dues than TAG members. So TAG’s administrative assistants pay $67 more per quarter than the highest paid showrunner.

Yes. According to ARTICLE NINE, Section 1(e) of the TAG Constitution and By-Laws, TAG dues can only be increased by a secret ballot vote of members in Good Standing at a regular or special General Membership Meeting. 

The process for voting on dues adjustments and increases isn’t determined by current TAG leadership, it’s set by TAG’s Constitution and By-Laws. According to Article Nine, Section 1(e), any changes to TAG dues must be decided by a secret ballot vote of Active members in Good Standing at a regular or special General Membership Meeting, which is why the vote is taking place live at the March 31st GMM.

We share the goal to make sure sure all members are aware of the vote and able to participate, so we have been communicating through multiple channels to raise awareness, including a postcard mailed to all eligible voters, a dedicated webpage with important information, studio visits, a town hall, virtual office hours, and ongoing email reminders. We will continue outreach and GOTV efforts to ensure members know when, where and how to vote.

TAG members received an initial dues adjustment survey on Nov. 20th, 2025, providing the first round of input and a Town Hall was held on Feb. 24th, 2026, where members were able to share their thoughts and ask questions. In addition, Business Representative Steve Kaplan will be hosting Office Hours throughout the month of March – check dates and times in the sidebar. You can also share your thoughts and comments here.

We understand how hard recent changes in the industry have been on many of our members. Unfortunately, a lack of employment also affects the Union’s income since many members who are not working go on Withdrawal and no longer pay dues. This decreases the monies coming in, while TAG still needs to pay bills to support organizing, contract enforcement, operational costs, and more.

In addition, TAG has made a significant investment in negotiations to stop studios from moving work to non-union shops. Investing in organizing leads to more union jobs, not only in L.A. County but around the country. In the last few years, TAG has unionized shops in New York, Texas, Virginia, and Puerto Rico, bringing a voice in the workplace to a larger group of animation workers. Additional investments have included advocacy to encourage AI protections through legislation and implementing tax incentives for animation for the first time in the state of California. TAG can’t continue to support these priorities without an increase.

While it may seem counterintuitive to ask for a dues adjustment when the market is down, the reality is that any increase will always be seen as a difficult decision. We’ve shown that keeping TAG growing is the answer to member concerns, and why it is never a bad time to support the growth of your Union.

We understand that when members are unemployed they may find it challenging to pay dues. If you are an Active member in Good Standing and are no longer working for a TAG signatory studio, you may take an Honorable Withdrawal (leave of absence) from the union. During the time of your Honorable Withdrawal, you do not pay dues but you can still participate in many Union activities. Learn more about how to request Honorable Withdrawal, as well as how to reinstate once you are working for a TAG signatory studio again, at our Membership Status page. You can also learn more about how you can stay involved in the Union while on Withdrawal.

While a member is on Honorable Withdrawal they can stay engaged in many ways: 

• Participate in Committee events, social events, webinars, panels, and other educational opportunities.  
• Stay engaged with Committees and groups such as TAG ME.
• Reach out for help with workplace issues. 

However, only Active members in Good Standing can attend General Membership Meetings, vote on Union business, or chair Committees.

Paying a percentage of our annual salary towards dues is not something TAG can enact through a Constitutional change. This process would require collaboration with employers and would need to be negotiated into the Collective Bargaining Agreement. In fact, TAG has proposed “Dues Checkoff” to the employers before, (the name of the process of withholding dues from salary payments) and was told the matter would be too “burdensome” for them to implement

TAG’s biggest expense is staff and for good reason. As our union has grown, we have expanded office support to meet the rising needs of members and to protect the work, wages, and benefits we’ve fought hard to secure.

Over the past eight years, TAG has hired Field Representatives to enforce contracts, organizers to prevent work from moving to non-union studios, an Assistant Business Representative to support multiple contract negotiations, administrative assistants to help members, and communications staff to engage the media and keep members informed. These roles are critical—not optional—to effective union representation.

Plus, TAG remains understaffed compared to many other Locals. With only 18 workers serving more than 8,000 members (both Active and on Withdrawal), TAG has fewer staff than similarly sized and even smaller Locals. The average ratio of staff to members at most IATSE Locals is 1:235, meaning that TAG has at least 4 fewer staff members on average than other Locals. In order for TAG to continue growing, we need additional workers to make sure members’ needs are met. Unfortunately, without a dues increase, TAG may have to enact staffing changes such as moving staff to part-time or furloughing. 

The Executive Board created a working group at the end of 2024 to study financial projections for the Union and determine next steps. This process included reaching out to experts and the membership. 

• A survey was shared with TAG members to gather feedback, review concerns about a dues adjustment, and gauge members’ thoughts about a new dues structure. 
• Cheiron, a third-party consulting firm, was hired to calculate how TAG can achieve financial sustainability, which requires an income that covers operating costs and meeting member needs.

The data provided by Cheiron, along with member feedback from the survey, informed a dues adjustment proposal that has two components.

Component One: New Tiers and Rates
Based on Cheiron’s data, a new dues structure has been proposed that will create four wage tiers and adjust dues rates over the course of three years. The new wage tiers will simplify the assessment process by focusing on wage thresholds for each tier. As wage minimums increase annually based on the increases negotiated in the CBA, so will the thresholds by the same percentage. For example, if wages increase by 3% annually, the TIER 4 threshold will increase by 3% from $1,600 to $1,648 (for tier thresholds, see graph in next FAQ). This increase benefits members so they don’t enter a threshold with higher dues when they receive minimum wage increases.

Component Two: Constitutional Change
This would begin after Year 3 of the first step. To ensure TAG can meet member needs as we grow, this proposal would adjust dues on an annual percentage basis, with the increase tied to the wage percentage increase that is negotiated in the CBA. 

This plan is graduated, implementing the adjustment across three years, ending in 2028. Dues would be based on wage tiers:

In Year 1 of the proposal, total dues paid by a member would break down to the following monthly totals:

TIER 1: $67 per month
TIER 2: $53 per month
TIER 3: $40 per month
TIER 4: $34 per month

To break this down further using TIER 1 as an example, a member whose weekly salary is $2,350+ would pay an additional $4.38 weekly in dues than what they pay now. 

Members who make less than $1,600 would see no increase in their TAG dues. They will only see an additional $0.23 a week to cover the per capita tax that TAG is obligated to pay IATSE per member.

Under this plan higher earners contribute proportionally more, while lower wage tiers are protected.

If you work at a newly organized studio outside of California such as Titmouse New York or Powerhouse in Austin, your dues WILL NOT increase at this time. The only adjustments you will see in the near future are IATSE Per Capita Tax increases.

These units recently organized, and it would be unfair to adjust their dues so soon after joining the Union. Additionally, different markets may have significantly lower wage minimums than the Master Agreement.

The new structure does not affect the Union’s process of going on Withdrawal. Currently, members on Withdrawal who wish to remain Active pay dues at their last assessed rate. Under this proposal, Withdrawal status would continue to reflect the applicable tier rate at the time of assessment.

This component would require a change to TAG’s Constitution & By-Laws.

For the financial health of the future of the Union, we need a way to avoid significant jumps in dues adjustments in the future. This can be done by building in a mechanism to increase dues gradually to meet inflation, similar to cost-of-living increases that the Union negotiates in the Collective Bargaining Agreements.

This proposal is that after Year 3 of the tiered adjustment, TAG would implement annual dues adjustments tied to wage increase percentages negotiated in the Master Agreement.

For example, let’s say you are paying $200 a quarter. The following year the new rate would increase based on what TAG negotiates in the Master Agreement. So if TAG negotiates a 3% minimum wage increase, your quarterly dues would increase by 3% or $6. This would allow the Union to stay on top of inflation costs.

You decide! A dues increase can only be implemented by a secret ballot vote of the membership. 

This vote will take place at the March 31st General Membership Meeting, when Active Members in Good Standing will be called upon to vote on the two proposals. 

• Vote 1: New Dues Structure over 3 years
  Requires a Simple majority vote
  The first vote would ask the membership to approve the new dues structure which includes: new payment tiers; a three-year rollout; and the recommended amounts.

• Vote 2: Constitutional Change after Year 3
  Requires a two-thirds vote
  The second vote would focus on a Constitutional change that would allow dues to be adjusted annually based on the wage increase percentage negotiated in the Master Agreement.

No, you don’t have to vote the same way on both proposals. We will be conducting two separate votes and you have the option to vote Yes or No on each one separately.

We are working with American Arbitration Association’s (AAA) to conduct an electronic secret ballot vote and ensure confidentiality. We will share more details about the voting process as we get closer to the date.  

No, you do not have to attend in person to vote. However, only people attending the meeting (in person or virtually) will be able to vote. Members will need to bring a device capable of allowing them to vote (laptop, cell phone, tablet) to the meeting to participate. If someone’s device is not working and they are attending in person, there will be backup ballots in the meeting hall. But the preferred method is to vote electronically.

If you are currently on Withdrawal or Suspended, you must reinstate your membership by paying all dues, fees, and assessments so that no monies are owed to The Animation Guild (your balance owing must be zero) by 5 p.m. PST on Mar. 26, 2026 to be eligible to vote.

Please note: Reinstatement can take a few days so reach out to the Guild office at membership@tag839.org no later than Mar. 23, 2026 to begin the process. 

The industry is experiencing challenges, and some members may eventually work in roles that place them in a lower wage tier than before. If you face this situation, you will be able to request a dues reassessment by submitting your information through a form on our website and providing details about your current circumstances. Staff would then review the request. If you meet the criteria for a new dues tier, your tier will be updated, and dues will be adjusted accordingly. Please note that you would need to request an adjustment before dues are assessed and invoices issued. If approved, the new tier would take effect in the next quarter’s billing cycle.