Hundreds of members of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) have expressed a commitment to fight for Guild coverage for future animation projects that they will create, write, or produce, according to a Vulture news story.
WGA Calls for Guild Coverage for Animation
More than 850 writers and showrunners have signed a public pledge, saying that with a WGA contract, writers are guaranteed residual payments, greater pay, and necessary health and pension benefits, including paid parental leave. Hence, the Guild calls for "the protections and security that come with WGA coverage."
"We want to be treated equal to live-action writers, not less than," reads the pledge which was shared on Monday.
WGA members can sign the pledge by clicking on this link.
Meanwhile, if you want to see the list of people who already pledged, you can head to this link.
AWOC Says Guild Coverage for Animation Should be Demanded by the Writers
The Minimum Basic Agreement (MBA) does not guarantee Guild coverage for animation, thus writers must demand it, according to the Animation Writers Organizing Committee (AWOC), which spoke to Guild members on Monday.
Vulture reported that the WGA West board of directors allegedly founded the AWOC to aid writers of animated shows projects in obtaining Guild contracts for their work or personnel.
Although writers have previously been successful in obtaining press for their animation work, it has purportedly grown more challenging with time, said the news outlet.
Arbitrator Recently Ordered Netflix To Pay Writers Millions of Dollars
WGA has recently been in the headlines.
As we have previously reported, the WGA declared last week that it had won against Netflix in a "self-dealing" arbitration over the latter's failure to pay the writer's residuals for the theatrical release of "Bird Box."
In the "Bird Box" arbitration, the WGA claimed that Netflix used tried to apply the old AMPTP strategy, which entailed securing poor deals with other unions before trying to impose the "pattern" on writers. In other words, Netflix allegedly underpays writers.
It was reported that Netflix lost this case because the WGA fought for the payment that writers were due under the MBA.
The arbitrator found that the license fee should have exceeded the film's gross budget. Therefore, the arbitrator consequently mandated that Netflix pay the writer $1.2 million in residuals and interest.
According to the WGA, this decision will directly result in an additional $42 million in outstanding residuals being paid to 216 writers on 139 additional Netflix theatrical titles. Netflix reportedly owes writers over $13.5 million in interest as a result of these residual payments, which the guild is currently pursuing.
The WGA claimed that because the streaming giant is currently refusing to pay interest on late residuals for films other than "Bird Box," the Guild is demanding in arbitration the $13.5 million in interest that is still owed to these screenwriters.
