Animation Guild & AMPTP Extend Contract Talks Again, More Bargaining Dates Scheduled For November

The Animation Guild (IATSE Local 839) continued talks on a new contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, but negotiations will now extend into November, as the two parties need more time to get the deal done.

The union revealed in a memo Wednesday that talks will resume the week of November 18 for “a consecutive series of negotiation sessions aimed at making progress.” The current contract has been extended again, this time to December 2, to accommodate.

The contract was set to expire at the end of this week, after it was already extended twice to make room for more bargaining dates. While it probably isn’t the news that TAG members were hoping for, lead negotiator Steve Kaplan said in a statement that this week’s talks left leadership “hopeful that the studios are willing to provide us with the movement necessary to reach an agreement.”

That’s some decent progress since the first round of talks in August, when the union said it was still “far apart” from the studios on several key issues. That statement was a bit more blistering than this one, as TAG added that it was “disappointing, but not surprising, that we could not get meaningful responses” on all the issues.

As Deadline previously reported, artificial intelligence and staffing protections are the priorities for the guild this go around. Staffing is being addressed in several ways, as the hope is that this contract can not only achieve wage increases but also establish staffing minimums, especially for animation writers.

Deadline hears that AI is the biggest headache between the Animation Guild and the AMPTP, as language around the technology is still fairly new. The studios have addressed AI in several of recent contracts with other Hollywood unions, but each craft requires its own considerations, which require more extensive and nebulous conversations than other provisions.

Last week, ahead of this round of bargaining, the Animation Guild flexed some muscle when hundreds of members descended upon Netflix’s Los Angeles headquarters to deliver a petition to executives. Apparently, more marches are planned in the coming weeks.