Animation Guild And AMPTP Can’t Reach Agreement, Negotiations To Continue In 2022

The Animation Guild (TAG) won’t have a new contract in time for Christmas. Negotiations between the union and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), which represents employers, have been put on hold after missing their deadline last week. They are set to start again in the new year.

Bargaining began on Monday, November 29, having been delayed from earlier in the year. The negotiations were due to wrap up on Thursday, December 2, but ran on into Friday.

“An agreement was not reached today,” Alexandra Drosu, TAG’s director of communications and content, told Deadline late on Friday. “We will have to continue negotiations in the New Year though no date has been set.” The current contract remains in effect in the meantime.

While the items on the agenda have not been divulged, TAG has made it clear that it wants to improve terms for all of the 6,000+ animation workers it represents — not just writers, who have run a prominent campaign for pay increases. Streaming contracts, which for historical reasons are less favorable to workers, are another bone of contention. Read our explainer for more.

The talks were supposed to start in June, but were delayed as parent union IATSE’s own negotiations with the AMPTP ran on. TAG bargains separately, and does so only after IATSE has ratified its own agreement, which it did (narrowly) on November 15.