Animation Guild Reaches Deal On New 3-Year Contract With Producers

IATSE Animation Guild Local 839 and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers have reached an agreement on a new three-year contract. The tentative deal includes 3% annual pay raises, no rollbacks, and a 10% increase in pension benefits for those retiring after August 1, 2015. The contract talks, which started on Monday, concluded late Wednesday night.

“Negotiations are never a walk through a flower-filled meadow,” said Local 839 business agent Steve Hulett, “but this contract session was less rancorous than the 2012 talks, and achieved better results. The negotiation committee, which included guild president Jack Thomas and organizer Steve Kaplan, did sterling work in side bar and the ‘big room.’ IATSE vice president Mike Miller greatly assisted the committee on the final day of talks.”

The contract covers some 3,100 guild members working in various aspects of the animation industry, including animation writers and directors, story board artists, background designers, CGI animators, and layout artists. All the major animation companies are signatory to the contract, including Disney, DreamWorks, Fox Animation, Marvel, Universal, the Cartoon Network and ABC Studios.

The Animation Guild is part of the IATSE, but bargains separately. Its new contract follows the contours of the deal the IATSE reached in April, and its New Media provisions are similar to those negotiated recently by the DGA and all the other major guilds and unions. If ratified by the guild’s members, as is expected, the new contract will take effect August 1.