‘New Deal for Animation': IATSE Members and Allies Rally Amid Contract Talks

thewrap.com:

The Animation Guild (TAG). Now, with that deadline being extended as talks over wages and working conditions for animation workers drag on, members are standing firm and expressing their needs, both vocally and as painted by members upon dozens of cars. “Our master agreement is a living document, and in many ways, it represents the industry of the past rather than the industry of today,” Teri Cusumano, co-chair of the TAG Color Design Committee told the hundreds in attendance. “We need a new deal that pays us equally for our work regardless of what platform it airs on, that equally represents workers regardless of where they are doing that work,” Cusumano added. “We need a new deal that pays animation workers equally to our live-action counterparts and we desperately need a new deal that gives equal pay for equal work.” The animation contract talks, initially set to begin this past summer, were first postponed to allow the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers (AMPTP) to continue long talks with IATSE for the Hollywood Basic and Area Standards Agreements, which govern working conditions and wages for all film and television productions nationwide.

Those agreements were ratified by union members by the narrowest of margins, averting the first-ever strike in IATSE history.While the details of that contract sharply divided workers on whether it achieved the systemic change they were looking for, the organizing around that agreement built a sense of solidarity amongst IATSE locals that has carried over into this new push by The Animation Guild.The rally on Sunday took place at the headquarters for IATSE Local 80, which represents grips and warehouse workers among several other production set positions.