The Animation Guild and Affiliated Optical Electronic and Graphic Arts | |
 | |
| Nickname | TAG |
|---|---|
| Predecessor | Screen Cartoonist's Guild |
| Founded | 1952 |
| Headquarters | Burbank, California |
| Location |
|
| Members | 2,550 (2010) |
President | Jeanette Moreno King |
Vice President | Teri Hendrich Cusumano |
Key people |
|
Parent organization | International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees |
| Affiliations | AFL-CIO |
| Website | www |
The Animation Guild, also known asTAG[1] is a professionalguild andunion ofanimation artists, writers, technicians, and production workers.[2][3] The full name of the organization is The Animation Guild and Affiliated Optical Electronic and Graphic Arts, Local 839 of theInternational Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees and Moving Picture Technicians, Artists and Allied Crafts of the United States, its Territories and Canada,American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations/Canadian Labour Congress.
Before the founding of the union on January 18, 1952, under the name "The Motion Picture Screen Cartoonists Guild, IATSE Local 839",[4] known as "Motion Picture Screen Cartoonists Guild" for short, the push to unionize theanimation industry in the United States came from theScreen Cartoonist's Guild. It was a union which held its first union meeting in 1937 and won recognition in 1941.[5]
From 1940 to 1941, animators atWalt Disney Studios were successfully organized,[6] with a victory for the Guild and defeat for Disney and thecompany union known as Federation of Screen Cartoonists (FSC), following theend of the strike.[7][8][9] Later, in 1944, the Guild sent organizers to New York City to form a local chapter, Local 1461.[4] In 1947, the Guild had an unsuccessful twenty-eight-week strike againstTerrytoons, Inc. despite receiving support from other unions. Terrytoons hired students fromNew Rochelle High School asscabs, andPaul Terry outlasted strikers with a "large backlog of unreleased films".[10][11] The strike was later described as the animation industry's "most devastating blow" for animators.[12]
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In 1958, the Guild successfully organized workers atHanna-Barbera Productions.[1] At that time, the union organized many animators across the industry.[13]
In August 1979, the Guild struck for ten days againstRuby-Spears Productions,Hanna-Barbera Productions, andDePatie-Freleng Enterprises, with the studios agreeing to in-studio staffing levels before some work can be subcontracted outside of the U.S.[14] The next year, 1980, the Guild established the American Animation Institute which aimed to provide education about animation craft and art taught by professionals inanimation industry.[15]
In August 1982, the studios refused to renew the 1979 agreement with Guild. This resulted in the Guild's 1,600 membersgoing on strike against all animation studios withinLos Angeles, California.[16][17] The strike ended with studios refusing to address the issues related torunaway productions raised by the strike.[18][19]
In 1987, the Guild founded theSociety for Animation Studies, which began holding an annual conference two years later, and later published apeer-reviewed journal,Animation Studies.[20] In Spring 1995, the Guild signed a contract withDreamWorks Animation.[1] It was reported in August 1999 that the Guild, which had 2,500 members at the time, was trying to unite with animators from other countries rather than competing against them.[21]
In July 2002, the union changed its name to "The Animation Guild".[22][4][23] In November of the same year,Nickelodeon Animation Studios signed a collective bargaining agreement with the union for the first time, bringing in workers fromDora the Explorer andSpongeBob SquarePants.[1] The following year, Guild members ratified a new collective bargaining agreement with major animation companies, which lasted until August 2006.[24]
In October 2004,DPS Film Roman animators voted to join the Guild by a 166-20 vote, with a contract ratified in January 2005.[25] Later, in 2009, the Guild negotiated bargaining terms forstreaming television when it was "something of a quirk," leading to a push by some in theanimation industry, and the Guild itself, for better working conditions for those in the industry.[26][27] Sideletter N entered into the collective bargaining agreement with the Guild, in 2015, outlined improved working conditions forstreaming media.[1] The same year, the Guild also inked a three-year contract with theAlliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.[28] In May 2019, the Guild ratified contracts for animators at Nickelodeon. The following month, the guild’s efforts to win workers at Shadowmachine, which were working onBoJack Horseman, were successful.[29][30] Later, workers for the company would again vote to be part of the guild in May 2022.[31]
Animators who worked onRick and Morty andSolar Opposites filed a petition, in February 2022, for a union election with theNational Labor Relations Board so they could join the guild. According to the Guild,Adult Swim and20th Century Studios did not voluntarily recognize the entire unit as the Guild proposed, leading to a negotiation before recognition.[32][33] Previously, in September 2014, the crew ofRick & Morty ratified a new labor agreement with the Guild, following a successful organizing effort.[34]
In January 2022, it was announced that workers for the studio ofTitmouse, Inc., in New York, had organized under the Guild. It was the first time the union represented ananimation studio "outside of LA County".[1] Following the union becoming public, Titmouse management chose to voluntarily recognize the union and negotiate with the Guild "in good faith".[35] Previously, in October 2020, Titmouse Vancouver had become the first animation studio in Canada to join a union, joining the newly founded Animation GuildIATSE Local 938.[36]
The Guild ventured into its first organizing campaign outside of thecontinental United States when workers for thePuerto Rican based animation studio Gladius Animation Studios unionized with them in July 2023.[37] It was also reported, in July 2023, that there were efforts by 88 animators atWarner Bros. Animation andCartoon Network to join the Guild, with their request for voluntary recognition of the union by management.[38][39]
The Animation Guild is governed by its membership, which meets every two months. To supervise the Guild's affairs, every three years the membership elects a sixteen-person Executive Board by secret mail ballot. The Executive Board meets every month. The key executives on the Board are: Jeanette Moreno King (as President),[40] Teri Hendrich Cusumano (as Vice President), and Steve Kaplan (as Business Representative).[41] The Business Representative is the only paid, full-time elected official of the Guild, which also has a paid staff. All other Board members work at studios under the Guild's jurisdiction.
The Animation Guild negotiates and enforcescollective bargaining agreements, or CBAs, with companies employing persons under itsjurisdiction.[26] The present contract the Guild has with studios will expire in mid-2024, even though animated productions may be impacted by the2023 SAG-AFTRA strike.[42]
The Animation Guild'sjurisdiction is determined by its parent body, theIATSE, and as defined in its CBA.
The Guild covers all artistic, creative and technical job categories in theanimation process, with the following exceptions:
Although the Guild's traditionaljurisdiction was limited to those working onanimated films, in recent years the Guild has expanded to the point where a significant percentage of its members are employed in motion picturecomputer graphics. Today, both2D and3D artists work under the Guild'sjurisdiction, both inanimation andlive action.
All of the Animation Guild's currentcollective bargaining agreements are withemployers insouthern California. TheIATSE and other IA locals havejurisdiction overanimation in other areas of theUnited States andCanada. In December 2021 it was reported that the union had "close to 6,000 active members" and that most lived inLos Angeles, California.[43] Previously, in 2016, it was reported that the Guild had "nearly 4,000" members.[44]
Membership in the Animation Guild can be acquired either through employment or organizing.
Animation artists, writers and technicians who are hired byemployers signed to GuildCBAs will be required to join the Guild after thirty days' employment. The one-time initiation fee consists of two weeks' minimum scale wages for the job category in which the applicant has been hired. Dues are charged quarterly and are also based upon the scale rate for the job category as of the beginning of the quarter. As of August 2008 the highest dues rate is $101.00. In April 2018, the Guild announced that 25% of workers under its union contract were women, the first time for the union.[1]
Animation artists, writers and technicians who are employed by companies that do not have TAG agreements, may become members if and when the company is organized. Potential members may assist the Guild in its organizing efforts by signing a confidential representation card. After the employer is organized and signed to acollective bargaining agreement, employees often are brought into membership without initiation fees.
#NewDeal4Animation was a Tweet protest created in November 2021 by The Animation Guild, advocating for equal pay between animation writers and live-action writers, also citing the effects of COVID-19 on their jobs.[45][46][47] In a February 2021 video campaign featuring various animation writers, the Guild said that animation writers received less than half of live-action writers' pay.[46][48] Other cited issues included changes in the workflow of studios, such as increased workload, out of proportion with shorter development time from technological advances; and paying animators for large first seasons at a lower rate (pay boosts are given for renewed series), but splitting that season into multiple smaller seasons for viewers.[27] Negotiations for a new contract between TAG and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers—their last contract expired on October 30, 2021—began in November 2021,[49] and in May 2022, a new contract was agreed to, with retroactive additional wages and special clauses for remote work.[50]
