The Animation Guild Reaches Tentative Agreement With AMPTP

Animation workers, who are represented by The Animation Guild, IATSE Local 839 (TAG), reached a tentative agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) last Friday evening. The negotiations took place over multiple sessions that lasted over three months.

The negotiations on a new three-year contract began on August 12. TAG’s main concerns were wage increases, shrinking crews, and a need for common sense guardrails around the use of generative AI. No deal was reached within the initial five day negotiating period. A new round round of negotiations began on September 16, and continued for 16 non-consecutive days. The tentative deal was reached last week after a long session that stretched into early Saturday morning.

The AMPTP is not commenting on the deal, but TAG has revealed that these are the substantial gains they’ve made for animation workers in this bargaining cycle:

• Increases to health and pension funds with no cuts to healthcare benefits or added costs to members.
• Wage increases: 7% in the first year, 4% in the second, and 3.5% in the third.
• AI protections that include notification and consultation provisions.
• Improvements in the new media sideletter (aka Sideletter N).
• Protections for remote work.
• New bereavement leave and additional sick days.
• Recognition of Juneteenth as a holiday.
• Craft-specific gains, including a framework for staffing minimums for writers and significant wins for storyboard artists.

The deal will now go before Animation Guild members for a ratification vote.

Steve Kaplan, TAG business representative, said in a statement:

After weeks of negotiations that covered months in the calendar, I am very proud of the agreement that we reached with the studios for our new contract. Not only have we seen the inclusion of the advancements in the industry realized by the other Unions and Guilds, but we were able to address industry-specific issues in a meaningful way. I am incredibly proud of the almost one hundred TAG members that volunteered their time and efforts to work through these negotiations. Our Table and Support Team members were stalwart in their resolve to achieve all that we could during these discussions. As always, this new agreement gives us a solid foundation to work with as we work to keep our industry strong over the next three years.