Contact them now if you work in visual effects and want to see your shop organized!

It’s time to ORGANIZE!

The Guild has embarked on a series of organizing initiatives to bring the benefits of the Guild to workers at non-union employers.

If you are presently working at Wildbrain, Renegade, Moonscoop, Digital Domain, Sony Imageworks, Nickelodeon CG, Rhythm and Hues, Zoic, or any other non-union facility, and if you would like to get benefits under our Motion Picture Pension and Health Plan, drop us an e-mail or give us a call.

We’re looking for information that can help us organize your employer, and we would like you to sign a STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL representation card.

Let us know how we can help you get the wages and benefits you deserve.

• Steve Hulett, Business Representative
• Steve Kaplan, Organizer

Read more here: http://vfxsoldier.wordpress.com/2010/08/04/could-unionization-save-vfx-facilities/

Here’s an excerpt:

So how much would organization actually cost? Well according to sources in the IATSE, the national labor organization that The Animation Guild is a part of, a guild employer would have to pay the following for each worker:

• about $4 per hour worked plus about a 6% contribution into the IAP (Individual Account Plan).

I estimate the IAP contribution to be about $6000 a year. If you want to see how that number is calculated go here but lets make an assumption and calculate the amount based on an artist’s salary.

• Assume an artist works 40 hours per week for a total of 2080 hours a year.
• Assume that artist makes $48 an hour for a nice even salary total of about $100,000 per year.

The total amount an employer would probably have to pay to the guild would calculate to be about $14,500 per year. (*Correction – this amount isn’t paid to the guild, it is paid into the health and pension benefits. The only money paid to the guild are the dues paid by workers.) That’s far less than the national average of 30% employers pay to administer benefits.

At the TAG Blog, Steve Kaplan says that Scott seems to contradict himself on the topic of organizing labor.

VFX Soldier thinks that Scott needs to have a debate with himself.

Stix and Jones at ThinkingAnimation thinks that Scott Ross should run for President.

Read and enjoy!

Here’s that mail from Steve Hulett, with contact e-mails at the bottom:

The Animation Guild is getting more proactive working with non-signator animation studios in Southern California. To that end, we’ve recently hired Steve Kaplan, a veteran visual effects artist, as our new Organizer.

There are a number of medium-sized shops doing work for the entertainment conglomerates, and it is our plan and goal to bring as many as possible into the Guild’s family of studios.

We encourage our members to take whatever work they can to stay employed and in the industry, and we fully understand that many of us work at non-signator studios from time to time. Unfortunately, not all studios are aware of the benefits to them of becoming part of our family.

So, we’d like your assistance. If you are currently working non-union, contact Steve Kaplan or Steve Hulett and let us know where you are working and what project you are working on.

The Guild has never nor will ever have a problem with its members remaining employed. Our aim is to provide a seamless cloak of portable health and pension benefits for everyone in animation.

Respond to these e-mail addresses and help us help you to get the contractual benefits you deserve.

info@animationguild.org
shulett@animationguild.org
skaplan@animationguild.org

http://www.fxdag.org/blog/veg-google-doc

There have been several recent articles written about this Freelancers Dilemma and you can read them at The Animatinon World Network and Motiongrapher web sites.

This practice seems to have started on the East coast but is spreading West to the dread of California based freelance visual effects artists. These “Employers of Record” companies charge the freelancer a percentage of their paycheck in order to deal with the paperwork, effectively offloading the typical payroll and accounting costs that a production company would absorb onto the backs of the freelancer without offering any of the benefits such as sick days, vacation, health insurance, retirement plans or legal counsel. Some production companies will not hire an artist unless they agree to sign up and pay specific “Employer of Record” services. At the end of the day, the freelancer is classified as an employee of the EOR service company.

This unfortunate situation resulted from a recent crack down on the convenient but illegal practice of classifying employees as freelancers.  There’s a good article on that posted in the New York Times, linked here, about this practice in general use. The extensive fines for studios engaged in the practice of misclassifying workers created a perfect storm for companies like MBO and Yurcor to step in and make a buck while sheltering the studios from scrutiny, oversight and the responsibility of providing usual and customary services, such as payroll and benefits, to their freelancers, er,  employees.

Under normal circumstances, freelance workers and independent consultants would be prohibited from forming a labor union since a union functions to collectively bargain for a group of employees and and an independent contractor by definition is neither a group nor an employee however once a freelancer signs on with an “Employer of Record” they are, in fact, employees… not of the production company but of the Employer of Record. This puts the EOR in the position of being the employer of a large number of visual effects artists who may now be eligible to form or join an organized labor union.

One New York-based VFX worker and former union member has suggested that perhaps The Animation Guild or The Editors Guild could look into this practice and at least think about the possibility of promoting the idea of  organizing the labor of this marginalized group of visual effects workers who now may be eligible to organize. What are the Employers of Record at this point if not very large shops?

Could the thousands of visual effects artists who are forced to sign up with EOR’s print out and pass around Union Authorization Cards? Would this perhaps force the EOR’s to sign union contracts at which point the studios that hire workers through the EOR’s will be required to pay fair rates and not abuse their formerly freelance workers through unreasonable hours or conditions?

Would it be possible to organize the EOR companies like MBO and Yurkor so that workers bouncing from company to company would have the portable benefits a labor union could provide?

I don’t profess to know the full scale of the issue or the legal realities of the situation so I invite the readers of this blog to hash this idea out in the comments section. I look forward to hearing from you.

On 2/27/2010 , SOMEONE wrote:

As a VFX artist and supervisor, with my significant other being a <REDACTED> artist, supporting <REDACTED> dependents in <REDACTED>, I would love to know some answers. No one has actually told us how to start a Union,  who would pay for it, or even the likelihood of it succeeding.

While nobody knows the likelihood of something like this succeeding, there’s a well established path towards organizing labor. It’s heavily legislated and there are very clear guidelines. Existing organizations such as IATSE, TEG and TAG can help you get the ball rolling at your place of work but it takes a certain amount of cajones to stand up and call for union representation.

As for as who pays for it, it’s a combination of members who pay initiation fees and dues as well as contributions from each employer running a union shop. As an example, The Animation Guild initiation fee is based on two weeks the minimum scale wage (hopefully less than your actual rate of pay) for your position plus $101 per quarter dues. The initiation fee currently ranges from around $1,500 to around $2,500.

I am not sure at this time how the employer contributions are calculated.

On 2/27/2010, SOMEONE continued:

By the way… we really need a Union, not a Guild. There are too many of us for a Guild. On a movie there  is one director, he has a guild, a few editors, a few writers… all in guilds. The grips, the truck drivers,  all in Unions. We outnumber all those guys… we need  a Union. A guild would only serve the sups.

Guild is just a nicer way to say Union. They are synonymous. Both The Animation Guild and The Editors Guild are unions under IATSE. IATSE is the same union that oversees locals that rep the grips and truck drivers. I have collected several links, including instructions on how to organize, at the www.fxdag.org web site for future reference however I will also publish the links here for immediate gratification. I am happy to let the fxdag.org web site serve as a clearing house for information and ideas in conjunction e-mail on this list. Let me know if there’s something you want to see on there.

Between The Editors Guild and The Animation Guild, both of which are IATSE Unions, there’s a huge knowledge base regarding how to organize labor. They have professional organizers willing to help but it takes boots on the ground at each facility to get it done. Employees at each facility need to do this from the inside. An outside agency cannot and will not swoop in to organize your work place for you. Employees need to step up and lead the organization process. If you want to organize your work place, do some research. Read up on it and contact the folks at TAG and TEG. While they may encourage you to join their respective guilds, they’ll also help if you want to form your own local under IATSE.

You’ll need to form an organizing committee, pass out authorization cards at your work, get signatures and call for a vote. You can read more details in the supplied links here.

How To Unionize Your Production Work Place

I Want to Start a Union Where I Work

The Organizing Process

How do I get my Employer to Sign with The Animation Guild

Animation Guild Representation Card

IATSE – How to Organize in the US

IATSE – What is a Union Organizing Campaign?

National Labor Relations Board

Animation Guild contact information:

Phone Number: (818) 845‑7500

info@animationguild.org

Editors Guild Contact Information:

Contacts: Tris Carpenter National Organizer

323.876.4770, Ext 244

tcarpenter@editorsguild.com

Rob Callahan Organizer – Los Angeles 323.876.4770, Ext. 245

rcallahan@editorsguild.com

Toll Free Los Angeles 800.705.8700

IATSE Contact Info:

IATSE General Office

1430 Broadway 20th Floor

New York, NY 10018

Telephone: 212-730-1770

Office of the International President Fax: 212-730-7809

Office of the General Secretary-Treasurer Fax: 212-921-7699

ITASE Organzing Department e-mail: organizing@iatse-intl.org

Check it out here!

The Editors Guild seems to have a lot of experience with post production which in some cases may be more applicable to VFX work than The Animation Guild, though I’m sure one could argue that case. Either way, the following links are interesting reads if you are so inclined.

Unionize Your Show

Start a Union

Join a Union