Dec 6, 2022

Nickelodeon Production Workers Vote to Unionize, but Studio Refuses Voluntary Recognition

A super majority of Nickelodeon Studios production workers voted in favor of unionizing with the Animation Guild (TAG) and IATSE Local 839 to begin negotiating their first collective bargaining agreement. The production workers join more than 400 Nickelodeon artists already represented by TAG.

The 177 workers will be the largest bargaining unit of production workers organized under TAG. The new unit will include a production manager, production coordinator, post-production assistant, art production coordinator, and asset coordinator.

According to the TAG, when presented with the request for voluntary recognition, Nickelodeon's attorneys instead chose to strategically exclude these groups of workers based on job title, taking advantage of "a common misunderstanding of labor law to unnecessarily prolong the process."

With Nickelodeon's refusal to grant voluntary recognition, the next step for the production workers and the guild could be a union election by the National Labor Review Board as early as next week.

TAG's bargaining committee believes that one agreement should cover all Nickelodeon animation workers, including production workers. However, they believe that "studios prefer to single out production workers in separate agreements that do not provide the same rights and protections."

"While I am deeply disappointed by Nickelodeon's decision to intentionally make our efforts for equality and fairness even more difficult, I have seen firsthand the strength and solidarity shared among fellow production workers," said production coordinator Isabella Potenzini.

TAG representative Steve Kaplan added, "The company shared the desire to prioritize productive labor relations when discussing the impending negotiations of the existing bargaining unit. It is therefore surprising and unfortunate that the company has chosen to jeopardize that relationship by forcing us to appear before the NLRB and in some cases taking escalated action in order to achieve our goal of joining the production staff."[11

Nickelodeon production workers who voted to unionize cited improper workplace practices, low wages, and high health care costs as reasons for their decision. Production coordinator Ryan Brodsky is quoted as saying:

The current wage gap in production jobs makes it nearly impossible to survive in Los Angeles. Many of us have had the shameful experience of begging our parents for money to pay our rent and eat. We work full time for one of the largest corporations on the planet, and there is no reason why our parents should fund this multi-billion dollar enterprise.

Minh-Chau Nguyen, CG Asset Production Coordinator, agreed and said:

As production workers, many of us have had to work second jobs, do overtime, take out loans, and seek financial support from family and friends to make up the pay gap We have had to compensate for the pay gap by working second jobs, doing overtime, taking out loans, and seeking financial support from family and friends. This unsustainable model of working more for less needs to end now. With voluntary recognition from Nickelodeon, my hope is that future generations of production workers will be able to focus on building their careers instead of worrying about unlivable wages, work-life imbalances, and inadequate benefits.

Nickelodeon production workers may be the largest group to ever join TAG, but their vote only caps off a phenomenal breakthrough year of organizing efforts by the guild. The production workers of Rick and Morty and Solar Opposites joined TAG in February, and have been a part of Titmouse LA, The Simpsons, Family Guy, American Dad! , "Toon Out the News," and "Bent Box Entertainment" also voted in the same way.