Animation Guild | We are 839 Digital Magazine
Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1446450
AUGUST 6 Despite the 1979 win, the studios refuse to renew the "runaway production" clause. With an overwhelming vote to authorize a strike, Local 839's 1,600 members go on strike, this time against all animation studios in L.A. Local 839 establishes the American Animation Institute with the goal of providing reasonably priced education in the art and craft of animation by animation industry professionals. 1980 OCTOBER 16 The 10-week strike ends—not happily, as strikers cross the picket line in week nine, and the president of the IATSE orders the Guild to call off the strike. As the result of a contract settlement that omits the "runaway production" issue, employment and Guild membership plummet. 1982 Storyboard and layout artist TOM YAKUTIS briefly serves as union president. 1983 The Guild elects veteran Ink and Paint Artist KARAN STORR as its first female president. 1984-1992 The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers punishes Local 839 for its "runaway production" strikes, telling IATSE that it will no longer negotiate on behalf of the studios with Local 839 in the IATSE bargaining unit. Local 839 begins to bargain its own contract. 1985 The Society for Animation Studies is founded with a grant from Local 839. The society has hosted an annual conference since 1989 and publishes Animation Studies, a peer-reviewed journal. With animation work shifting to Asia, Local 839 membership is now half of what it was following the failed strike in 1982. 1987 Despite organizing the first computer animation shops, overall East Coast animation employment shrinks, and New York's Motion Picture Screen Cartoonists Local 841 merges with International Photographers of the Motion Picture Industry Local 644—now Local 600. 1988 Anna Osborn and Cecilia Dellamore at the Golden Awards in the 1980s. F E AT U R E 12 KEYFRAME