Ratified August 21 with 97% in favor, the unit’s first agreement closes the gap between remote employees and their Los Angeles colleagues on the same projects, who until now had different wage scales, benefits and protections; The Animation Guild also picked up Sony Pictures Animation production management workers in an August 27 NLRB election.
Remote artists and technicians at DreamWorks Animation have ratified their first union contract with The Animation Guild (TAG), IATSE Local 839, eight months after voting to unionize in a National Labor Relations Board election. The agreement, ratified August 21 with 97 percent of participants voting in favor, gives the unit the same wage scales, pension and healthcare coverage as DreamWorks workers on campus in Los Angeles.
Of the 108 eligible voters, 90 cast ballots. The contract brings the remote unit under the protections of TAG’s Master Agreement through a sideletter: the same healthcare and pension plans as on-campus workers, with $0 premiums for individuals; the same minimum wage standards; and access to future improvements negotiated under the Master Agreement. The lowest-paid remote artist covered by the deal goes from $40.82 per hour to $62.22, a 52.4 percent increase.
Until now, remote animation artists and technicians working on the same projects as their Los Angeles colleagues did not receive the same wages, benefits or protections. The unit covers remote workers across the U.S. doing work the Master Agreement already covers when performed in LA County, including story artists, animators, character effects artists, technical directors, lighters, visual development artists, modelers and production coordinators. The group filed for an NLRB election in September 2025 and voted to unionize on December 23.
“This contract is a huge victory for DreamWorks remote artists, but also for the animation industry as a whole,” said Anthony Holden, a DreamWorks story artist and member of the negotiation committee. “Our coworkers who work in-person at studios in LA enjoy mobility between employers with guaranteed benefits such as healthcare coverage and a pension plan. Many of us remote DreamWorkers have served for years (and in some cases decades) in the same industry without the same protections. Now we can work under the same terms as our union brothers and sisters.”
The ratification follows first contracts for DreamWorks’ on-campus production workers, ratified last September, and for production workers at Netflix Animation Studios, ratified in May.
Production management workers at Sony Pictures Animation, meanwhile, voted August 27 to join TAG. The group had sought voluntary recognition from the studio; Sony declined and required an NLRB election, in which 95 percent of eligible workers voted and 84 percent voted in favor.
“Despite Sony’s deliberate attempts to challenge our movement, when the rubber hits the road, we’re all in favor of dignity and respect in the workplace,” said Grayson Arndt, senior administrative assistant. “Now it’s time to take our seat at the table.”
Dan Sarto is Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network.
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