In light of the ongoing strikes happening in Hollywood, animators from Warner Bros. Animation and Cartoon Network plan to unionize with The Animation Guild.
The Animation Guild Writers Craft Committee announced on Twitter that production workers from both companies have organized to join TAG. They have filed with the National Labor Relations Board, requesting a union election and have also reached out to Warner Bros. Discovery for voluntary recognition. The TAG believes that this is the first important step for employees hoping to negotiate a better deal with studios.
Deadline reported that a total of 88 employees (66 from Warner Bros. Animation and 22 at Cartoon Network) had signed a petition for unionization. Employees go beyond just animators. Production managers, assistants, IT staff, and design production coordinators are just some of the other production staffers that signed the petition.
The Animation Guild was founded in 1952 and has more than 6000 members. The Guild recently launched a petition to support unionized workers employed at 20th Century and Disney Animation. Deadline reported that establishment at Disney is “currently in progress.”
Cartoon Network and Warner Bros. Animation are the studios behind shows such as Adventure Time, Infinity Train, Teen Titans Go, Harley Quinn, and The Looney Toons, just to name a few. After Warner Bros. merged with Discovery in 2022, one of the affected departments was animation. Around 19 percent of the animation workforce were given the pink slip, and the parent company announced that both Warner Bros. Animation and Cartoon Network Studios will merge as part of business restructuring plans.