DreamWorks Remote Workers Ratify First TAG Contract, Securing Wage And Benefit Parity

Remote artists and technicians at DreamWorks Animation have overwhelmingly ratified their first collective bargaining agreement with The Animation Guild (TAG), IATSE Local 839.

Approved on August 21 with 97% of participating workers voting in favor, the agreement saw ninety of the unit’s 108 eligible members cast ballots, an 83.3% turnout.

The agreement extends the protections of TAG’s master agreement to remote DreamWorks employees through a side letter, giving them the same minimum wage scales, pension plans, and healthcare coverage as colleagues working on the studio’s Los Angeles campus. Individual healthcare plans will carry no premiums.

For some workers, the wage gains will be substantial. According to TAG, the lowest-paid remote artist covered by the agreement will see their hourly compensation rise from $40.82 to $62.22, a 52.4% increase.

DreamWorks story artist and negotiating committee member Anthony Holden, whose recent DreamWorks credits include The Bad Guys 2 and Annie Award-winning storyboard work on Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, said:

This contract is a huge victory for DreamWorks remote artists, but also for the animation industry as a whole. Our coworkers who work in-person at studios in LA enjoy mobility between employers with guaranteed benefits such as healthcare coverage and a pension plan. Many of us remote DreamWorkers have served for years (and in some cases decades) in the same industry without the same protections. Now we can work under the same terms as our union brothers and sisters. This contract represents an important shift towards broader industry change that values and respects not only artists’ skills but also our right to choose to live in locations around the country that are best for our families and personal circumstances.

The agreement concludes an organizing effort that began when the remote workers voted to unionize with TAG in a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) election on December 23, 2025. The unit includes remote employees across the U.S., including story artists, animators, lighters, modelers, technical directors, visual development artists, and production coordinators.

TAG announced the DreamWorks deal alongside another recent organizing victory, this one at Sony Pictures Animation (SPA). On August 27, production management workers at Sony voted to join the union, with 84% voting in favor and turnout reaching 95%.

The Sony workers initially asked the company to recognize their union voluntarily. Sony declined, requiring them to proceed through an NLRB election.