Animation Staff March on Netflix, Current Petition for Truthful Deal

Lots of of The Animation Guild (TAG), IATSE Native 839 members marched on Thursday to Burbank’s Netflix workplace to current a petition to executives, signed by virtually 2,000 members, to remind the streamer that whereas staff saved content material manufacturing alive through the COVID lockdown, and animation is outperforming live-action on screens and in merchandise gross sales, they face unprecedented ranges of unemployment.

TAG has been in negotiations with the Alliance of Movement Image and Tv Producers (AMPTP) since August. Up to now, the Guild’s precedence points, comparable to honest wages, job safety, and commonsense guardrails round Generative AI use, are nonetheless on the desk. This primary ‘March on the Boss’ is a part of a sequence of actions to indicate employers that TAG will stand collectively for so long as it takes to get the contract they deserve.

The petition was introduced by Elianne Melendez, manufacturing coordinator and negotiations committee member, who said, “Delivering this petition is flexing our energy as a union. Staff, who’ve given loads to this trade, are companions with the studios, however haven’t been handled as such. That is exhibiting the AMPTP that we cannot be the so-called good union any longer.”

Visible growth artist Nash Dunnigan stated, “My greatest concern proper now’s AI. We have to have guardrails to guard all of us and ensure animation has coronary heart and other people behind it – not algorithms.”

“We have to have staffing minimums, or this trade goes to go away,” added showrunner Joanna Lewis. “Our youngsters won’t be able to be animators sooner or later. It is going to stop to be a viable profession path. They’re outsourcing our jobs to totally different international locations, and with the specter of AI, it is grow to be an existential risk.”

Extra info on negotiations could be discovered here.

Supply: The Animation Guild

Debbie Diamond Sarto's picture

Debbie Diamond Sarto is information editor at Animation World Community.