Animation workers at Stephen Colbert Presents Tooning Out the News have voted to join The Animation Guild (TAG) IATSE Local 839, becoming the second such group of animation workers and production staff in New York to do so, joining workers from Titmouse New York who cast a similar vote in January of this year.
That Titmouse vote was historic and represented the first time that workers at an animation studio in New York had unionized in more than three decades. They are currently in the process of negotiating their first contract since the vote.
According to TAG, a super majority of animation workers at Tooning Out the News voted in favor of unionizing. A petition has now been filed with the National Labor Relations Board to organize an election and certify the union. TAG is also submitting a letter for voluntary recognition to ViacomCBS’s CBS Eye Animation Productions, producers of the show.