The Animation Guild’s contract negotiations with the AMPTP have broken off without a deal but will resume later next year. “An agreement was not reached today,” Alexandra Drosu, the guild’s director of communications and content, told Deadline tonight. “We will have to continue negotiations in the New Year though no date has been set.”
The guild’s current contract, which remains in effect, had originally been set to expire on July 29 but was extended to October 30 and was extended again to allow IATSE to work out a film and TV deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers. That contract was narrowly ratified on Nov. 15. The Animation Guild, IATSE Local 839, bargains separately and was not part of those talks.
Major issues for the guild include better terms for streaming shows, a significant pay increase for animation writers and an outsized raise for the guild’s lowest-paid crafts.
Going into the talks, which began on Monday, leaders of the 4,600-member guild told their members that the negotiations were expected to wrap up on Thursday, but were extended into Friday in the hope of reaching an agreement.
The AMPTP is next expected to begin contract negotiations with Hollywood’s Teamsters Local 399 and the Basic Crafts unions.