THE Animation Guild (IATSE Local 839) sets fire to the feet of the major studios, while negotiations on a new contract drag on.

Two weeks later agree to extend the current contract To welcome more discussion again, the Animation Guild visited DreamWorks’ offices in Glendale, Calif., on Tuesday to deliver to executives a petition signed by more than 58,000 active TAG members and public supporters, in the aim of emphasizing the value of the profession.

In a statement, the guild said that “while animation workers have kept content alive during the COVID lockdown and animation outperforms screens large and small, animation workers are facing unprecedented levels of unemployment, losing their healthcare, housing and livelihoods.”

This is the second such action coordinated by TAG, following a similar march on Netflix last month, ahead of the latest round of negotiations. Talks are expected to resume the week of November 18, with the contract extension expiring on December 2.

TAG has now agreed to extend the contract three times. With the October extension announcement, chief negotiator Steve Kaplan said in a statement that the week’s discussions left executives “hopeful that the studios are prepared to provide us with the movement necessary to achieve an agreement.”

However, at Tuesday’s march, character creator Michelle Drennan told the crowd that AMPTP had “failed to realistically address our biggest demands.”

“We need to show them that we’re not going to go backwards without the things we need to keep our industry alive,” Drennan continued. “We face unprecedented existential threats, and we take them seriously. There have been numerous press articles where they are talking about replacing us and drastically reducing our workforce. We’re not just going to sit back and accept it.

As Previously announced deadlineartificial intelligence and personnel protection are the guild’s priorities in this context. The staffing issue is being addressed in several ways, as the hope is that this contract could not only result in salary increases, but also establish minimum staffing levels, particularly for animation writers.

Deadline learns that AI is the biggest headache between the Animation Guild and the AMPTPbecause the language around the technology is still relatively new. Studios have addressed AI in several recent contracts with other Hollywood unions, but each trade requires its own considerations, which require more in-depth and nebulous conversations than other provisions.