ANIMATION
WORKERS
IGNITED
Animating
our
labor
movement
✶
Animating our labor movement ✶
WHO WE ARE
Animation Workers Ignited (AWI) is a caucus made up of rank-and-file animation workers and member-leaders who believe that resilience , strength, and change for our industry starts with The Animation Guild.
If you’re ignited to build a real fighting union, join the movement by joining AWI!
What is a caucus?
A caucus is a group of like-minded members of a union who are aligned around the pursuit of some common goals.
Unlike committees, which are formalized under and governed by guild leadership, caucuses are independent. This means they are not subject to control by union leadership - they are driven entirely by members.
Joining a caucus can be as simple as affirming your support for its shared vision!
WHAT WE HAVE DONE SO FAR
AWI has gathered overwhelming support from our community by making animation's fight everyone's fight, and publishing educational content that our union wouldn't.
AWI amassed over 600,000 followers and millions of views across 3 accounts in just one year alone, but it’s no longer just a social media powerhouse - it's a movement to finally demand more.
If you’ve ever met a wall instead of a door when interacting with your union, you can join AWI to create a transparent, democratic, nimble union that fights.
#CancelledCartoons
What is a union? What does it do? Why should I care? Less than 10% of Americans belong to a union. While creating social media content as a rank-and-file group, TAG members got to see first-hand the power and impact of educating our community around our fight.
Millions were engaged with the plight of animation workers where they hadn’t been before, thanks to tapping into the unique properties of cartoons: the AWI educational PSAs and comics are just the first step into pushing animation issues to the forefront of consumer’s minds. AWI sees a future where TAG can invest just as smartly into signal-boosting our fights to come!
TOGETHER WE CAN BUILD…
Job protections: Against AI and outsourcing
A member-led union: Transparency, education, and real participation
An industry that’s ours: Thriving wages, residuals, and a strike-ready union
Want to know more?
Do you feel IGNITED for change, ready to build a transparent, democratic, fighting union?
A union isn’t just its leadership - it’s healthiest when it’s led by its rank-and-file members. We’re stronger with you!
Keep scrolling down to learn more about our vision, slate, and how to join!
THE AWI VISION
JOB PROTECTIONS•MEMBER-LED UNION•TAKING OUR INDUSTRY BACK
WHAT WE WANT
Protections against AI encroachment
Job protections that keep animation US-based and union-made
New Media parity with broadcast media
Mailbox merchandising residuals
Better residuals for our healthcare plan
A fighting union that pushes for remote work options and hybrid flexibility
Organization of production workers across the country for a thriving wage
Expansion of TAG’s reach to make sure anyone working out-of-county can become union
A strike-ready union by 2027!
MEMBER-LED UNION
Opening Up Our Union: Open bargaining by 2027 for a truly engaged membership, GMMs that involve and invite participation, transparent executive board meetings that look to our membership to drive us.
Health Plan Bargaining: Our union doesn’t bargain its own healthcare plan and our members are falling out of coverage! Agitating for TAG to have a sit at the table for bargaining our Health and Pension plan.
Staffing From Within: Staff the union to reflect our members!
HOW WE’LL GET THERE
PARTICIPATION
Organizing to Fight: Training in organizing and on-the-job action, creating a negotiation strategy hub, tap into member power to enforce contract and implement grievances between negotiations.
Removing Barriers to Access: Member-driven social media content and communications, member-decided endorsements for political offices, no longer having to choose between staying informed and affording dues!
Uplifting Member-Leaders: Creating an Organizer In Training and Fellowship roles, implementing term limits to usher in new collective experiences
EDUCATION
Shop Stewards: Training focused on grievances, parliamentarian process, and organizing.
Training For All: Bargaining training, officer training, March on the Boss training, and organizing training - open to all members!
Learn, Teach, Do: Members learn, teach other members, and implement their newly learned skills within our union to support next-generation leadership.
TAKING OUR INDUSTRY BACK
Fighting for What We Deserve: Fight back against shrinking crews, fight for mailbox residuals, streaming residuals for our healthcare, merchandising payments to fund our future.
Investing In Organizing: Strike preparedness, targeted corporate research, publishing fair wage information for all
Building Up Connections: Connect with the larger animation community (non-union workers, students, and consumers), pressure employers and decision-makers with campaigns, strategize with other IATSE locals and other entertainment unions.
Our slate for the 2025 TAG elections is made of motivated, empathetic, and passionate members who want to help you drive our union into a secure future for all animation workers!
2025 SLATE
Voting begins October 14th!
NORA
MEEK
I’m Nora, a storyboard artist and writer, and have been at Cartoon Network to Titmouse to Nickelodeon, and on both features and shows like The Patrick Star Show and Animaniacs. 2026 marks my 10th year as a TAG member. I’ve weathered multiple industry upheavals, from the Zaslav merger axing my crew at WB to another show lost in the Paramount/Skydance fallout.
Since 2016, I’ve bargained four TAG agreements, co-chaired the Young Workers Committee, been a founding member of TAG-ME, and served as a Local 839 delegate 7 years in a row, helping make TAG one of the most engaged locals in IATSE. After our success with the Captains program that clinched our historic deal at Nickelodeon, I helped launch the TAG-wide Captains program as we geared up for our latest master agreement’s fight. I immediately saw our gaps: we weren’t letting our members in. We were able to wrestle our bargaining updates to be more transparent than ever before, but we needed a place for action. I created our Escalating Actions Committee to bring member-driven power to the bargaining table by organizing walk-outs bigger than our local has seen in decades. With Animation Workers Ignited operating simultaneously as a member-driven push to enlist our community in our fight, millions of eyes turned to animation issues and TAG delivered petitions signed by over 60,000 supporters. We secured a great contract, but a contract that we deserve comes with a true threat to the corporate bottom line.
I’ve seen what works, and it’s regular people getting together to expect more and demand more. What that looks like is concrete change: acknowledging that more transparency and knowledge means fighting smarter, infusing more members in bargaining our contracts, demanding residuals and aligning our contract’s expirations with other unions like the WGA and SAG-AFTRA to wield more power together, tapping into the power of animation’s consumers (our community!), making it possible for underemployed members to reinvest into the union through implementing hardship dues, and organizing indie. The rise of the current U.S. administration’s attacks on unions won’t be curbed by waiting around for tax incentives to save us. A strong union, led by its membership, can bring back jobs after layoffs and force company reinvestment into our careers. When our jobs are shrinking, it’s time for the union to grow.
If elected, I won’t back down on:
Becoming strike-ready, allowing members to see and vote on our bargaining priorities before we sit down to the negotiating table, and opening up the bargaining process to members
Making membership meetings accessible with hardship dues, and exec board meetings more transparent with open meeting invites
Securing cross-support from IATSE and other entertainment locals: TAG members deserve to cast a ballot for the IATSE President and bargain how their healthcare covers them, including pushing for residuals to fund our healthcare and our pockets
Investing into our members by hiring organizers-in-training and researchers, opening strike-readiness workshops to all, and funding a member-driven social media/news presence
FOR SECRETARY
MIKE
RIANDA
I’m running to help change the animation industry and our union for the better!
I’ve worked in animation for 15 years and have been lucky enough to work hard alongside some of the greatest artists I’ve ever met and the best people I’ve ever known.
My friends and co-workers and the medium we love are in crisis- from greedy corporations, Artificial Intelligence, and more. I want to do everything in my power to make your life better as an animation worker. We are creating billions of dollars of value for these studios, and you, the artists and production workers, are underpaid and overworked and deserve a bigger piece of the pie. As a member of the executive board, I will fight to build a union that will give you the protections and benefits you deserve!
I believe that The Animation Guild should be asking for and expecting so much more from these companies who depend on OUR labor to make THEIR billions. We deserve higher pay, better benefits, and rock solid protections from outsourcing and A.I. But it’s not about what I want, it’s about what you, the members want. I would be honored to try and help make TAG a bottom-up union, where the workers themselves shape the policies, asks, and actions. Where the members take the future of the union in their own hands, and are in the drivers seat of their own destiny. When we fight hard, we win, and I want to fight on your behalf.
FOR EXECUTIVE BOARD
TOM
SMITH
FOR EXECUTIVE BOARD
I entered this industry as a production assistant in 2011, but my experience with TAG began in 2015 when I reached out to start an organizing effort at Stoopid Buddy Stoodios. Although the campaign failed, I learned a lot from the experience. The next year I joined TAG as a storyboard artist at Nickelodeon, and went on to work as a director on a variety of projects from PBS to Adult Swim. I continued my work as a TAG organizer by serving as a shop steward at Titmouse LA, assisting Titmouse Production workers with their successful unionizing campaign, and as a delegate at this year’s IATSE Quadrennial. I have found that the best way to learn is to do, and in that spirit I am running for Executive Board to better learn how to serve you, my union kin.
I’m running as part of the Animation Workers Ignited caucus because I believe that a union where members are educated and empowered, organized from the bottom-up, is the best way to fight back against the existential threats facing us today. Already I see TAG moving in this direction through initiatives like TAG-ME and the Captains program, and I want to help support and expand those efforts.
As a member of the Executive Board, my priorities will be member engagement, education, transparency, and the continued organizing of animation workers across the country. I’m excited to see what TAG will look like under the leadership of President-elect Danny Lin, and look forward to working with her and the rest of the elected leadership should I earn your vote. I’m available online or in-person if you’d like to chat about anything you read here. Reach me @tomsmithcartoon on instagram, discord, or bluesky.
GET INVOLVED
Follow us on all social media and join our Discord (links below)