Social media is a powerful tool, and in recent years labor unions around the country have harnessed its energy. TAG is no exception. With the creation of a TAG Communications Department, and various craft committees launching online campaigns, Local 839 has used social media to capture attention, empower members, and grow the Union in a variety of significant ways.
Educating Fellow Union Members
During the 2018 negotiations, when the Color Stylists Committee (as it was then called) released its #ColorIsDesign social media campaign, the goal was simple: education. They needed their fellow TAG members to know what they were fighting for: as designers they wanted pay equity with comparable design crafts. “This was before the Guild even had a communications department,” says Color Designers Committee Co-Chair Teri Hendrich Cusumano, who led the effort. Along with their campaign they circulated a petition asking for support, and by the time negotiations started, the petition had more than 2,600 signatures that included show creators such as Rebecca Sugar, Lauren Faust, Craig McCracken, Ian Jones-Quartey, Niki López, and Jorge R. Gutiérrez, to name a few.
This high-profile support drew the attention of Deadline and other media, and Hendrich Cusumano believes these efforts helped with contract gains such as Color Stylists being recognized as Color Designers. “The producers’ first responded to the Color Designer proposal in 2018 with no interest to move on the issue,” she says. “I then made my presentation to them which highlighted aspects of the #ColorIsDesign campaign—primarily the petition. Immediately after that presentation, the AMPTP responded with the two gains we won that year: a title change and a shortened wage schedule equal to other design crafts.”
Extending beyond contract negotiations, educating membership via social media efforts has addressed various learning topics, both craft-specific and broader subjects like the importance of a union. The Storyboard Committee produced a series of comics and videos aimed at informing Animation Guild members about important issues like how to run for TAG office, breaking down the MPI pension and 401(k) plans, the role of shop stewards, and more. These visually appealing graphics posted on social media helped expand the reach of the Union and engage more members.
The Testing Committee was also able to effectively leverage social media to increase dialogue about their efforts to address abusive testing in the industry. The committee created a web page (animationguild.org/testing-is-a-choice) and asked TAG members to submit all tests for review in order to help change the industry’s abusive culture of testing. They promoted this effort through a series of educational comics illustrated by Kris Mukai. One comic on getting ghosted after taking an animation test garnered more than 700,000 Twitter impressions. “The value of these posts going semi-viral is that it generates a lot of discussion and spurs artists to question the practice of testing in the first place, rather than just accepting it as the norm,” says Testing Committee Co-Chair and Executive Board member Danny Ducker. “The ‘baked-in’ nature of testing has been one of the biggest hurdles, so open and public questioning really helps with our efforts.”
Capturing Media Attention
In the summer of 2021, with TAG’s delayed negotiations looming, a graphic containing inaccurate data about WGA’s live-action writers and TAG’s animation writers circulated on Twitter. In response, Janis Robertson, a member of the Writers Craft Committee, suggested they create their own graphic to highlight pay disparities.
A subcommittee made up of Robertson, Joey Clift, Greg Hahn, and Cassie Soliday spent evenings and weekends creating hashtags, graphics, memes, and GIFs, ultimately releasing about 40 pieces of unique content over the course of 14 days as the start of a progressive campaign. The WCC subcommittee aspired to do more than educate TAG members about the pay disparity between live-action and animation writers; they wanted to educate the entire entertainment industry and hoped that the media would highlight their campaign.
The hashtag #PayAnimationWriters trended number one in Los Angeles and California during the first week of TAG negotiations in November 2021, catapulting onto the pages of animation industry and entertainment media outlets. The media attention drove the committee to raise the stakes for the second round of negotiations in February of 2022.
“If we wanted to get the same level of news coverage that we got on our first round, we couldn’t do that with the same strategies,” says Clift.
With about a dozen people now on the subcommittee, the writers produced approximately 100 pieces of content, supporting a video campaign featuring showrunners, high-profile writers, and even local politicians such as L.A. City Councilmember Nithya Raman. The #PayAnimationWriters campaign has received tens of millions of unique impressions across Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter since its start; the first video alone had more than 100,000 Twitter views in its first 24 hours.
“Twitter is a very effective way to attract media attention to Union issues,” says Alexandra Drosu, TAG’s Director of Communication and Content. “We have spent the last couple of years engaging with media to cultivate a following, and now many press outlets are paying attention to what we’re doing.”
Twitter has been used strategically to support organizing efforts and engage with the media. One example is when production crews at Rick and Morty and Solar Opposites began organizing in January 2021. With just 15 people in the two bargaining units, efforts accelerated quickly. Shop stewards Teddy O’Connor, Jack Cusumano, and Elisa Phillips realized that one of the most significant things they and their TAG colleagues could do to help was to show solidarity through memes and GIFs on social media.
Drawing inspiration from the Epic Handshake meme, Cusumano created a Production Strong graphic of Rick and Korvo—two of the main characters from each production’s show—shaking hands in solidarity. O’Connor later adapted that image into an animated GIF. When the production crews went public with signing their cards, the eye-grabbing image was put to use, most notably on Twitter. And when the crews weren’t voluntarily recognized, the artists produced a second social media push to show their support. “Even though there are specific fights, it’s all unified as one effort for our Union,” O’Connor says. “We hoped the artwork would help the production crews feel confident, not only in their own solidarity as a bargaining unit, but also in the support and solidarity of their TAG colleagues. We wanted to let them know, loud and clear, we’ve got your back.”
Another result was that it grabbed the attention of the media. The Hollywood Reporter reached out, yet another case of TAG organizing efforts and wins being in the news because of our social media.
Inspiring Member Engagement
It wasn’t by happenstance that hundreds of TAG members and their allies showed up on March 20th in a parking lot in Burbank for a historic public rally in support of the Union’s ongoing negotiations with the AMPTP. The rally owes much of its success to a snowballing social media campaign anchored by the hashtag #NewDeal4Animation.
In anticipation of the 2021 negotiations, “I predicted that we needed a unifying message that everyone can get behind,” says Hendrich Cusumano, a member of the Negotiations Committee group that worked together to finalize that message. As #NewDeal4Animation was used in TAG’s overall messaging and incorporated into the social media campaigns of various craft committees, the effects were multi-pronged.
The hashtag’s prolific use drew attention from big names like comedian Adam Conover and Trollhunters’ creator Guillermo del Toro, who in turn posted their support to their massive followings. And under the all-inclusive umbrella of #NewDeal4Animation, TAG members from different crafts came together for a collective cause. “It felt like we were all lifting each other up in a way that was really cool to see,” says Clift. “We’ve got the animation writers hashtag, but we’re also boosting #NewDeal4Animation. Color Design will release a petition that includes Color Designers deserving fair rates, but they also include our hashtag and messaging, as well. We’re all working together.”
Craft committees continued to share the #NewDeal4Animation hashtag with both their individual and other craft campaigns, and by the time it was attached to social media promotions for the rally, the committees were working to keep their social media in sync, enabling them to attract consequential numbers.
As TAG’s social media campaigns gained public momentum, Hahn notes that every day or so when the Writers Craft Committee checked, they would see hundreds of new #NewDeal4Animation hashtags with an even more expanded reach: “It’s not just the people in L.A. It’s not just the people who work [in animation]. It’s the fans of all the different shows and movies that we’ve worked on.”
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