WGA Picket in New York Doubles as Unionization Effort for Animation Writers: “We Are Going to Get This God***n Industry Organized”

In the pouring rain, upwards of 100 people marched outside of Warner Bros. Discovery’s Park Avenue South building Tuesday afternoon in New York as part of a themed Writers Guild picket that doubled as a promise to unionize east coast animation writers.

“This has been a long, horrible battle trying to get animation writing covered. We are not giving up. I’m really just here to say that when the strike is over, when we have won the contract we deserve, we are circling back to animation,” Susan Kim, WGA East animation caucus co-chair and a writer/story editor behind hits like Arthur, Bubble Guppies, Courage of the Cowardly Dog and Clifford the Big Red Dog, told a drenched crowd of picketers. “We are going to be back. We’re going to be better than ever. And we are going to get this goddamn industry organized.”

During her brief speech — which was preceded by comments from Michael Winship, president of WGA East, as well as SAG-AFTRA member and WGA East strike captain Don Hooper — Kim encouraged “every animation writer here whether you are currently a part of the guild or not” to sign in, promising that the union would follow up with them in the fall.

The effort to unionize animation’s east coast writers has been discussed for over a decade. Like much of animated children’s television, New York’s animation writing community is not covered by a WGA contract and does not fall under the collective bargaining agreements of the Los Angeles-based Animation Guild, IASTE Local 839, which represents animation artists, writers and technicians.

It’s a guild WGA East executive director Lowell Peterson respects, dismissing notions that the east coast Guild would have any effect on the membership of the west coast TAG.

“We are very close to IASTE and IASTE has been very supportive of our strike. So we’re certainly not going to go raiding,” he told The Hollywood Reporter of WGA East’s approach to gathering union support. “I would say most animation writing in New York is non-union, and it’s not TAG at all. Particularly, children’s animation. In New York, I’ve talked to them, and they say better to have collective bargaining, fighting for health benefits and residuals, than not.”

In a statement, TAG showed solidarity with WGA East and its efforts to get non-union animation writers under a collective bargaining agreement. “We support the organizing of any and all members of the entertainment industry who are not protected under a collective bargaining agreement,” Steve Kaplan, business representative of The Animation Guild, IATSE Local 839 told THR. “Right now, our focus is on standing in support of WGA and SAG-AFTRA members to get the best deal possible during this difficult time in the industry.”

The rest of the picket line event was dedicated to championing the intergenerational impact of animation writers, whose work on shows like Big Mouth, Futurama, Star Wars animated series, Ninja Turtles, Into the Spider-Verse, Courage the Cowardly Dog, Paw Patrol, Peppa Pig and Dexter’s Laboratory was celebrated on both the signs created by animation artists and writers, as well as in a playlist that featured theme songs from SpongeBob SquarePants, Arthur, Scooby–Doo, Where Are You!, Adventure Time, Pink Panther, The Simpsons, Peanuts and Rugrats.

Kicking off the rainy event, Winship thanked Ben & Jerry’s — whose Jerry Greenfield was present and donated ice cream to the picket line, served up by none other than The Late Show host Stephen Colbert — before lamenting how one of the industry’s biggest and longest producers of animation was “resisting” the creativity of its talent.

“I have to say with total sincerity, the biggest thrill of my professional life was meeting the great Chuck Jones, of Warner Bros. Looney Tunes fame,” said Winship, calling the franchise “witty” and in “no contest” with another industry juggernaut, Disney Animation. “So it breaks my heart that the company that once was the source of so much brilliance, anarchy and hilarity is now bogged down, resisting the creativity of its talent and performers, refusing to give us a proper wage and threatening to take away our livelihoods.”

“Some animation is writers guild covered work. Most in New York is not, but deserves to be. As many of you also know, organizing has been a difficult experience,” he added. “So if you are WGA members — and some are not but should be — we see you, we hear you, and we thank you for being here today. When this strike is over … we look forward to the future of working together to get more animation work covered and to welcome you into our union.”

Hooper spoke to how the AMPTP’s responses to WGA bargaining asks reminded him of his early career days, in which he sat on an animation panel and discovered how writers behind animated shows like Beavis and Butt-Head, Codename: Kids Next Door and Courage the Cowardly Dog were being treated by the studios.

“All these kids cartoons that help us to understand our emotions as children; helped us to realize who we are as teenagers and adults and how to empathize with other people; cartoons that motivate us to come outside to try to be the hero we want to be — these writers were not considered part of the Writers Guild. They did not get to qualify for health and pension to sustain themselves in this field that we love,” he said. “These are the people that inspired me. So I’m out here to support them.”

Greg Iwinski, who started out writing for late night on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and Last Week Tonight before pivoting in 2018 to animated children’s series like Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures, said that with the strike changes will be coming and the next thing to fall will be “that animation writing pays differently.”

“I got told all these things: We could never beat the agents with packaging, we could never take on having a totally fair contract. We’re getting told now you can never have residuals based off your show being a hit,” he said. “And what we are proving again and again and again as writers, is it that things we’ve always been told are impossible or not impossible. We can get those deals, we can change this industry. We can change things we’ve been told for 10, 20, 30, 40 years are impossible.”

Voice actors Dwayne Hill and Jim Conroy, who have worked in animated film, TV and video games, celebrated the work of animation writers as essential to what voice actors do in the medium. “We haven’t got a word in our mouths without what you write down. You are the oil in our engine, the blood that pumps through our veins,” Hill said.

“Without you, we’re just an improv troupe, and does anybody like an improv troupe?” Conroy added to shouts of “No!”

The two, who have voiced characters on more than 30 projects, also asserted that despite its historical treatment in Hollywood, the medium is a lasting form of storytelling that deserves equity with its live-action counterparts.

“I think animation is even more important than live action. Five-hundred years from now, nobody’s going to remember who Jerry Seinfeld was. But somebody’s going to have a Mickey Mouse t-shirt,” Conroy said. “We keep making babies and they keep watching these shows. So what we do is eternal. Pay us that way.”