Friday, January 21, 2011

Ratification at the SPA

Yesterday there was a vote at Sony Pictures Animation on a new three-year SPA-IATSE contract ...

With a 65-70% turnout of the crew, the tally for ratification was:

92.6% - Yes

7.4% - No

The Sony Pictures Contract had wage bumps that followed the current industry norm (2%), and there were some title changes for a couple of classifications. Other than that, nothing in the contract changed.

(The SPA-IA contract has been in effect a bit over seven years, and covers writers, board artists, designers and pre-visualization artists on animated features at Sony. The contract is held and negotiated by the Mother International. The last two cycles, the Animation GUild has helped out with getting the contract ratified.)

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Whats stopping you from crossing over to Imageworks and getting those poor saps on board?

Steve Hulett said...

Funny you should mention that. Because yesterday, while I was running around with ballots and flyers, I ran into a TAG member now working at Imageworks. (It's the same building, so you DO bump into Imageworkers.) His words:

"Steve, I think it would be great if the IA and you guys came in here, because we could use the benefits. But there are people who think their wages will be cut and don't want it ..."

I pointed out to him that wages wouldn't be cut if a contract was negotiated. He understands that. Others don't.

So I guess we'll see what develops.

Anonymous said...

I've always been a bit confused about Sony's relationship to the animation union. Is the whole crew that makes "Cloudy" and "Surfs Up" under a Union contract? Only the story/pre-production crews? Animators?

The only thing I can glean is that some people there are under TAG's contract, some are not. What's the division line?

Steve Hulett said...

There is an IA contract (not 839) for pre-production work: storyboards, scripts, design. (This is Sony Pictures Animation.)

There is no union contract for production: animation, compositing, etc. (This is under Sony Pictures Imageworks.)

Anonymous said...

Thanks for clarifying.

Anonymous said...

And to further clarify, I believe the vast majority of the folks under that IA contract at SPA are in fact 839 members, even though it's not an 839 contract.

Anonymous said...

So the "Animation" that falls under 'production' isn't part of "Sony Pictures Animation" ?
Maybe they should change the name to "Sony Pictures Pre-Production"

Sounds like a mess.

Nobody stays there long anyway with all the layoffs SOny is famous for, so I guess it's not that important.

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