Yahoo News Titmouse New York Workers Unanimously Ratify First Union Agreement
Animation workers at Harriet the Spy studio Titmouse New York have ratified their first union contract.
One hundred percent of the bargaining unit voted to greenlight the agreement, which was reached by union negotiators and management on April 26. The groundbreaking union — The Animation Guild’s first outside of Los Angeles County since the signing of its charter in 1952 — is composed of around 113 workers including directors, storyboard artists, prop designers and 3-D modelers, among others. The agreement marks TAG’s first contract ratification outside L.A. County.
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“We are proud of the Titmouse artists in NY and support them as we move into the future together,” Titmouse founder and president Chris Prynoski said in a statement.
Added TAG business representative Steve Kaplan, “Animation workers across the country deserve the ability to have a voice in the creation of their working conditions. The crew at Titmouse NY is the first of what I expect to be many animation studios that will find their crews interested in sharing those decisions.”
The contract set wage floors for various job classifications and included “a general increase in wages across the board,” according to the union. The deal additionally sets a guaranteed number of daily work hours, codifies 6th and 7th-day overtime pay and includes Golden Hour language. Nine paid vacation days were included as a standard, along with 11 paid holidays. The studio agreed to allow remote work on a case-by-case basis.
Titmouse New York voluntarily recognized its union in early 2022 after a card count found over 90 percent of eligible workers signed representation cards. Workers at the time said they wanted to address “unrealistic” schedules, institute wage floors, improve health benefits and review overtime payments and role descriptions. Since the group at Titmouse unionized, The Animation Guild subsequently organized workers at Tooning Out the News in New York and attempted an expansion into Texas at Powerhouse Animation Studios in Austin.
Said Titmouse New York organizing committee member Dan Pinto in a statement, “This is a huge win for our studio, for the New York animation scene, and for animation and production workers across the country. This is only the beginning.”
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