Animation Guild & AMPTP “Trying To Find Some Common Ground” As Negotiations Restart Next Week

The Animation Guild (IATSE Local 839) is resuming negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers next week in the hopes of finalizing a new three-year deal before the contract expires yet again on Nov. 1.

Deadline hears the two parties have lengthy bargaining days set aside on Monday and Tuesday to hammer out the deal. A source tells Deadline that there hasn’t been much movement beyond casual exchanges since the last round of bargaining in September, which ended with a contract extension.

“The biggest issue we’re facing right now is trying to find some common ground,” the source says.

But, there is hope yet, as the source explains the outlook is still “optimistic” that there’s a deal to be made by next Friday.

The Animation Guild flexed its muscle Thursday, when hundreds of members descended on Netflix headquarters in Los Angeles to present a petition to executives that the union said in a statement should “reminds these bosses that while animation workers kept content alive during the COVID lockdown, and animation is outperforming live action on screens and in merchandise sales, animation workers are facing unprecedented levels of unemployment, losing their healthcare, homes, and livelihoods.”

In other words, it was meant to signal that the union isn’t playing around as it heads into next week’s bargaining sessions, especially since the contract has already been extended twice to accommodate more talks.

“We don’t want to spend the next few weeks [doing] that dance — we give a little, they give a little, we give a little,” a source adds.

The Animation Guild alluded that there may be more marches to come, if a deal isn’t struck next week, though a source says nothing is set in stone yet.

As Deadline previously reported, the key priorities for the Animation Guild are artificial intelligence and the elimination of staff positions, particularly among writers. Members of most unions are looking for an airtight deal to help mend some of the issues that have only been exacerbated by the lack of jobs due to the massive production contraction that has impacted nearly all of Hollywood.

Deadline hears that AI is presenting a majority of the headaches 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, like staffing minimums or increased wages.

When it comes to animation, the threat of AI looms even larger. While it’s not sophisticated enough to replace all human creatives, and it will be a long while before that happens (if it ever does), but especially in animation, workers say that it can already perform some of the basic tasks that were once included in entry level positions. 

With that in mind, it’s no surprise that the Animation Guild, like many of its sister unions in Tinsel Town, have found this most recent bargaining cycle to be quite contentious.