Mairghread Scott, field representative for The Animation Guild Local 839, an International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees Local, and JJ Jay, character rigger and negotiating committee member at DreamWorks Animation, joined the America's Work Force Union Podcast to discuss the first collective bargaining agreement covering remote workers at DreamWorks Animation, which was ratified on Aug. 21, with 97 percent of participants voting in favor of the contract.
Of approximately 108 eligible voters, 90 cast ballots, exceeding 83 percent turnout. Scott described the contract as coming from a position of strength, with the Animation Guild having previously organized DreamWorks production workers and an established bargaining relationship. Jay, who was on the fence about organizing until the difference in healthcare costs became clear, said he expects to save approximately $6,900 annually in upfront healthcare costs alone under the Motion Picture Industry Pension and Health Plan (MPIPHP).
The contract also establishes wage minimums that end the practice of paying remote workers less based on where they live. It includes both a pension and an employer contribution of 6 percent of union base wages to a retirement account, which begins at 4 percent in the first year of the DreamWorks agreement, while both benefit systems run in parallel. The lowest-paid workers covered by the agreement will receive a 52 percent wage increase.
JJ Jay's path to DreamWorks Animation started at AT&T Bell Labs in the 1980s, where he worked on large-scale, long-distance telephone distribution equipment. When Bell Labs announced it was splitting into three companies, he was at a conference in San Francisco and called an old professor who was working at Pixar, and one game of pool later, he had a job offer. He spent four years at Pixar before a call from DreamWorks, then a startup, changed his life. He was offered a role as a character rigger despite having no experience in the field. DreamWorks said they would train him, and 23 years later, he is still there.
A character rigger, he explained, is the link between the modeling team and the animators. Modelers build the 3D characters, but those figures can't move on their own. Animators are the ones who bring them to life. The rigger's job is to build the controls that connect the two. In his analogy, the rigger adds the strings that let the puppeteer make the puppet dance. Those controls also have to keep the character's shape and volume intact as it moves, so animators get tools that are easy to use and respond well.
Jay briefly left DreamWorks, but returned in 2019 as the studio's first remote worker following NBCUniversal's acquisition of the company. For nearly eight years, he has been doing character rigging from Northern California over a commercial-grade high-speed internet connection that the studio asked him to install when the arrangement was initially agreed upon.
When the organizing drive for DreamWorks remote workers began, Jay was on the fence. He had nothing against unions or DreamWorks. He had owned a brewery for several years and understood how businesses operate. He listened, read and talked to everyone who called him. What ultimately moved Jay was the healthcare math.
Mairghread Scott spent 13 years as an animation writer, working her way to showrunner. During the pandemic, a studio billing issue nearly cost her her health insurance. The Animation Guild intervened, helped her push back and thanks to their intervention, she was able to keep her coverage. That experience changed her relationship with the union. She started volunteering, joined the Executive Board, helped with contract negotiations and eventually became a field representative. She calls the role a “contract cop,” someone who enforces what the contract says since she was in the room when the language was written.
One of the studios she covers is DreamWorks. When the remote worker organizing drive began, Scott came in after lead organizer Ben Spade had done the foundational work of building the committee. Her role at the bargaining table was to lend negotiating experience and to take the notes she would later use to enforce the agreement.
She described the negotiations as coming from a position of strength. The Animation Guild had previously organized DreamWorks production workers and had an established bargaining relationship with the studio. The company took the remote worker campaign seriously. That does not mean it was easy, but the workers knew their worth and were willing to stand together, which Scott said is always the deciding factor.
The contract was ratified on Aug. 21, and covers remote workers who had previously been excluded from Animation Guild coverage because the original DreamWorks agreement extended only to Los Angeles County. The vote was 97 percent in favor, with an 83 percent turnout.
On the topic of healthcare, the Motion Picture Industry plan (MPIPHP) offers free single coverage. A second dependent costs approximately $25 per month. The family cap is $50 per month, regardless of how many dependents are covered. The plan is specifically designed for gig and project-based workers, as coverage is earned in six-month periods, and workers can bank up to 450 hours of eligibility so that when a project ends, their insurance can continue for up to a year. Scott described this as essential in an industry where a television worker might have guaranteed employment for as little as a month and where losing a job should never mean the immediate loss of health insurance.
Jay said his personal savings under the MPIPHP plan, compared to what DreamWorks was offering non-union employees, amounts to approximately $6,900 per year in upfront healthcare costs alone. He is not expecting a wage increase, as he is already paid above the contract minimums, but the difference in healthcare coverage was the deciding factor.
For workers at the lower end of the pay scale, the contract delivers a 52 percent wage increase. The contract also ends the practice of paying remote workers less because of where they live. Workers can relocate anywhere in the U.S. without affecting their pay or benefits.
On retirement, the contract includes both a pension and an Individual Account Plan. Employers automatically contributed 6 percent of each worker's union base wages to the IAP, which starts at 4 percent in the first year of the DreamWorks agreement, while both benefit systems run parallel. No employee contribution is required. Scott said this is consistently better than corporate 401(k) matching programs, but younger workers often do not recognize this because they have never experienced it. She said one of the most sobering aspects of labor organizing today is meeting workers who do not understand what a pension is and do not know what the workforce lost when pensions disappeared.
The contract is in effect as of the ratification date. Wage increases are being processed in the coming months, including retroactive pay. The health insurance transition is the final piece, with a 9-month runway to move everyone onto the MPIPHP coverage so no one loses insurance during the switch. Scott said the process is not instant.
“We have Dave, not a department,” she said.
Scott explained it's all coming, but the worker protections are now in place.
Jay noted that the salary variation among remote workers before the contract was significant. Some workers had seen their pay cut when they moved to less expensive regions because studios paid based on location. The contract ends there. It also means that a remote worker who decides to move anywhere in the country does not have to renegotiate their position or worry about how the change affects their healthcare. That stability, he said, is the foundational comfort the contract provides. It is a floor that is no longer at the studio's discretion.
Scott framed the contract as part of a broader Animation Guild push to organize more aggressively. The guild's statement called it an important shift toward broader change across the industry. According to the statement, that change values and respects artists' skills, along with their right to live wherever in the country is best for their families. Remote work is not a niche arrangement in the animation industry. It is a significant and growing segment of the workforce, and this contract establishes what union coverage for that segment looks like.
More information on the Animation Guild is available at animationguild.org.
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