Postproduction Workers at ShadowMachine Unionize With the Editors Guild

Katie Kilkenny
·1 min read

A few months after production workers at BoJack Horseman studio ShadowMachine joined The Animation Guild, postproduction workers at the company have unionized with the Motion Picture Editors Guild (MPEG).

A group of organizing workers requested voluntary recognition from the studio, which was granted after an independent arbitrator confirmed support for the union through a card check. About two dozen workers, including editors and assistant editors as well as others in postproduction roles who work on 2-D animation, are included in the union.

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“We are pleased to welcome the workers at Shadow Machine to the Guild family,” MPEG president Alan Heim said in a statement. “Animation plays a huge and growing role in the entertainment industry, and too often the talented craftspeople who create it don’t enjoy the same union protections bestowed on their live-action counterparts. Our Guild is working hard to change that, and we’re excited that Shadow Machine is part of the story.”

Deadline was the first to report the news. The Hollywood Reporter has reached out to ShadowMachine for comment.

In May, ShadowMachine granted voluntary recognition to a group of organizing production workers that sought to unionize with The Animation Guild. (TAG already represented other roles at the company.) The union drive was part of a larger effort on TAG’s part to organize traditionally non-union production workers in animation.

Around the same time, editorial workers at fellow animation studio Bento Box Entertainment successfully unionized with the Editors Guild. In that case, management similarly voluntarily recognized the union following a card check. The Editors Guild also represents workers in animation at legacy studios, Nickelodeon, Titmouse Animation and Wild Canary.

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