“The Simpsons”, “Family Guy”, “American Dad!” Manufacturing and IT workers earn voluntary union recognition –

Production and IT workers The Simpsons, Family Guy s American Dad! who tried to unionize gained voluntary recognition from management, reported The Animation Guild.

TAG commercial representative Steve Kaplan signed the three voluntary recognition agreements on Friday and a review of the card by an independent arbitrator will take place shortly, according to a union official. Ultimately, production assistants, production coordinators, production managers, IT technicians, office managers and supervisors were included in union bargaining units at three shows, but not associated producers that TAG originally tried to incorporate. The organizing event for the 20th animated TV show was the first time TAG had tried to bring IT workers together in collective bargaining.

Prior to this specific organizational push, TAG already represented workers in other roles at all three fairs. the hollywood reporter For comments, contact the three programs and the 20th TV animation; Representative of the simpsons He said the program had no comment.

When TAG announced a unionization effort at all three fairs in early June, the union affiliated with IATSE was in the process of presenting a union election at the National Labor Relations Council. (Voluntary recognition bypasses the NLRB election process.) In an announcement in early June, American Dad! Time’s head of production and animation, Jason Jones, noted that many animation show production workers are not unionized, unlike their peers: “Those of us who have been in animation production for many years are proud to be a part integral. About the longevity and evolution of our shows, along with the artists we work with. He added: “Although we meet the same tight deadlines and work the same hours, [are aware] That we don’t share the same basic protections as the artists we spend those hours with. We deserve the same respect and dignity as our fellow union-protected workers.

TAG has renewed its efforts to organize production workers, including production managers, production coordinators, production assistants and writing assistants, especially since the beginning of the year. Before organization disk The Simpsons, Family Guy s American Dad! Manufacturing workers with ally TAG unionized this year rick and morty s the opposite of the sun and studios Titmouse LA, Titmouse New York and ShadowMachine.

In the June interview THR Of the union’s recent organizing effort, TAG organizer Ben Spieth said that the idea of ​​bringing production workers into the union “wasn’t very encouraging to artists in the first place.” He added, “Many of the production staff that are being staged now have an art background or have a deep passion for animation. So in many ways, socially and culturally, they are the same community as those who play artist roles. “