Members of The Animation Guild are currently deciding whether or not to ratify a new agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers that’s on the table. And while the union is encouraging its members to vote yes, there’s a small number of potentially influential voices expressing concerns around AI protection. 

The voting window to ratify the tentative contract is from December 10 to 22. TAG held a third (and seemingly final) town hall on December 12 in Burbank to provide its members with information about the agreement and ratification process. 

If the deal is voted in, it will dictate the relationship between animators and studios for the next three years. 

A few members of the negotiating committee, speaking only on behalf of themselves, have been voicing concerns that this contract doesn’t do enough to protect creatives against AI. But that same committee surveyed TAG members and gathered the data that was used to craft the proposals presented to employers during bargaining. 

A section of the memorandum of agreement, which was released last week, focuses on AI and includes clauses such as: “The parties acknowledge the importance of human contributions in animated motion pictures and the need to address the potential impact of the use of AI systems on employment under this Agreement,” as well as: “Producers may require employees to use any AI system or resulting output of such systems for use in connection with the performance of covered work.” 

One of the negotiating committee members who feels the agreement doesn’t do enough to protect employees is Mike Rianda, director of Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation’s The Mitchells vs. the Machines. He took to Instagram on December 10 when the vote opened, noting that the deal includes wage increases, better health benefits and more sick days and holidays. But when it comes to the AI clauses, Rianda believes they give employers all the power and put jobs at risk. He acknowledges that a no vote could lead to a worse deal or a strike, but says that, “These pay raises and craft gains mean nothing if people are replaced by AI or outsourced.” 

Two other committee members, Kelly Lynne D’Angelo and Joey Clift, echoed Rianda’s sentiments online. 

“As a member of your Negotiating Committee and a member of the AI Subcommittee, I speak SOLELY FOR MYSELF when I say I am voting “No” on this contract,” said D’Angelo (My Little Pony: Make Your Mark) on December 10 via X. “I’ll go into further details soon, but…we still need to fight for more AI protections.”

Clift, a TV writer who worked on Spirit Rangers, posted a video on X stating that the union got a few “small AI protections in this contract, but these aren’t the strong common sense AI guardrails we need to keep animation workers protected.”   

The potential no votes are getting a lot of attention from the media, with The Hollywood Reporter and Variety both reporting on this developing wrinkle. But Alexandra Drosu, TAG’s director of communications and content, tells Kidscreen that all of this attention is blowing a minority opinion out of proportion, and that The Animation Guild Executive Board voted unanimously to recommend ratification. 

However,  just because the bargaining unit likes and agrees to a deal, doesn’t mean the majority of members will vote to ratify it, says Robert Richler, a partner at Canadian firm Bernadi Human Resource Law LLP. Richler has more than 15 years of experience in practicing law, working on labor disputes for both employers and employees during that time. 

Richler notes that the dissenters also have qualms about productions only requiring a small number of writers. But the core issue seems to boil down to people feeling that the gains made in the deal won’t amount to much if there are no jobs for them because AI has taken over their function, he says. 

Richler points to the new Sora feature that OpenAI released this week, which can create video content from a text prompt, as a very current threat to animators. “If it can do in a minute what an animator could do in a day or half a day, the expectation from studios could be to replace skilled staff with the tech,” he says, adding that this possibility is worrying more and more creatives, who are starting to express their concerns publicly, which is what the industry is seeing here. 

TAG is aware of these concerns and believes the deal is a strong start in tackling the issues head on. “Generative AI is a huge issue for our members, and we are passionate about protecting the industry,” says Drosu. “Nobody wants to see human workers replaced by machines.”

If the union members vote no, the negotiating committee will have to determine if the union’s members are willing to return to the bargaining table, and there’s no way to guarantee that a better deal can be hashed out. 

“Our job is to protect our members, but union contracts alone can’t solve this, as we’ve seen in the WGA and SAG-AFTRA contracts,” Drosu adds. “Look at them side by side with TAG’s MOA. Are they that different? Real change needs bigger solutions—like tax breaks for hiring people, strong laws and regulations, and the public showing up for human-made work.”

Richler says that TAG members should think about two things when they’re considering how to vote—what’s best for them personally, and what’s best for the profession. “These contracts don’t last forever, but if you think AI is a big enough concern that it needs to be addressed before the next contract, then you could vote no.” 

The union is defending the contract. A few hours after Kidscreen was in contact with Drosu on Wednesday, TAG sent out a statement to its members about the ratification, addressing the division. “We believe this agreement is the strongest contract the union has negotiated in the last decade, with significant craft improvements, substantial wage increases, and critical new protections.” The statement goes on to say that meaningful protection from AI takes time and more effort than lines in a contract, and the agreement offers a lot to union members. “We trust our members will see this as a significant step forward and vote yes to ratify the agreement,” the statement reads. 

“No union can stop AI on its own, but we’re here to make sure our members are protected and have a say in what’s next,” says Drosu.

Pictured is TAG members staging the union’s first “March on the Boss” in October. Image courtesy of TAG. 

Updated 12/16 with quote from Steve Kaplan, TAG’s business representative.