The Animation Guild and Hollywood studios have scheduled additional negotiations dates for September after concluding a week of bargaining without reaching a deal, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.
The union — which represents more than 5,000 animation workers — and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers previously only allotted one week, ending Friday, to reach a new three-year contract. But a consensus wasn’t reached by that time, according to a source.
THR has reached out to the AMPTP for comment.
Those continued talks will be closely scrutinized by members of the animation community. With many union negotiators calling this moment “existential,” this year the labor group is prioritizing the regulation of artificial intelligence and preventing further outsourcing of L.A. studio work to foreign countries. “These are people’s dreams that they’ve turned into careers that could be disappearing,” writer and negotiations committee member told THR in a recent story about the negotiation. “So we really try to keep that in mind as we move into negotiations — that we are fighting for the livelihoods of our membership, for our careers and our dreams.”
The rapid development of AI, which is still curtailed by a vacuum in policy and copyright restrictions, is nevertheless projected to disproportionately impact animation in the coming years. A survey of media leaders, commissioned by The Animation Guild and other organizations and released in January, found that 29 percent of animation jobs could potentially be disrupted by AI in the next three years, which is the term of the union’s next contract. With these talks, in an uncertain environment, the union is attempting to hold the line for its members.
“This really, for us, feels like a do-or-die negotiation cycle,” writer and negotiations committee member Joey Clift told THR at a union rally ahead of negotiations on Aug. 10.
Complicating matters is the level of unemployment affecting the union. With layoffs hitting firms including Netflix Animation and DreamWorks Animation and a period of austerity settling in industry-wide, the union has estimated that about one-third of its working members have been dismissed from their jobs in the past year alone.
The parties began negotiations at the AMPTP’s Sherman Oaks offices on Monday.
