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A little more than three quarters of voting members opted to accept the three-year deal.
By Rick Porter
Television Writer
Members of The Animation Guild have voted to accept their new contract with studios and streamers.
Per the guild, 76.1 percent of voting members chose to accept the deal, which covers 2024-27 and includes wage increases and key protections for members with regard to use of artificial intelligence in animation.
After three months of negotiations, The Animation Guild reached a tentative deal with members of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers in late November. The vote in favor of ratification came after a few members of the union’s negotiating committee said they would vote against the deal, citing concerns about the AI provisions of the contract. That led the guild’s executive board to issue a statement calling the agreement “the strongest contract the Union has negotiated in the last decade.”
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“I want to recognize the incredible work that the Negotiations Committee put into seeing this agreement reached and ratified,” TAG business representative Steve Kaplan said in a statement. “This agreement is the next step forward in our goal to create the strongest contract for our members. The advancements made here are plenty, but there is also much work to be done with regard to addressing the priority matters that were not fully answered. The membership made clear to us that there is a need for more focus on generative artificial intelligence, and we will attack the issue through a multi-faceted approach including lobbying for effective legislation, advocating for tax incentives for human-made work, and grieving against potential abuses.”
The 76.1 percent “yes” vote on the new deal is not quite as large a majority as the guild’s last agreement got: the contract ratified in 2022 earned 87 percent approval. The Animation Guild says turnout among members set a record, surpassing the last contract cycle.
Along with the wage increases and AI protections — which include the ability consult with productions to identify alternative non-GenAI tools for animation work — the contract includes increases to health and pension funds at no extra cost to members, increases to on-call hours and dismissal pay, additional sick days, a new provision for bereavement leave, recognition of Juneteenth as a holiday and craft-specific wins like minimum staffing levels for writers and gains for storyboard artists.
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