Warner Bros Discovery Welcomes WB Animation & Cartoon Network Production Workers Unionization

deadline.com:

David Zaslav has been preaching the gospel of Tinseltown labor peace since the SAG-AFTRA strike ended, and now the Warner Bros Discovery CEO is putting his money where his mouth is when it comes to his own backyard.

Almost five months after dozens of Warner Bros. Animation and Cartoon Network production workers began their efforts to unionize with The Animation Guild, WBD this week has recognized the move. “After months of discussions with the studio, I am proud that we were able to reach an agreement with Warner/Discovery for representation of animation production workers at Warner Bros.

Animation and Cartoon Network Studios,” said TAG IATSE Local 839 Business Representative Steve Kaplan to Deadline today. “The recent Walt Disney Animation Studios NLRB decision regarding the appropriate placement of Production Managers and Production Supervisors in a bargaining unit certainly helped the company better understand our demand to include those categories, and our long-standing productive relationship helped to forge the agreement we signed,” the labor leader added. “The Animation Guild looks forward to continuing that relationship as we begin to bargain the terms and working conditions of an agreement for the hard-working animation production staff at the two companies.” Representatives for WBD did not respond to request for comment from Deadline on the recognition of the unionization.

If and when they do, we will update. The move by the ‘toons local comes new contract talks for IATSE loom with the expiration of the crew union’s current contract on July 31, 2024.