Ruling Leaves Union at a Loss in Bid to Organize TV Animation Writers

A young union’s first bid to organize television animation writers has failed, with the union losing an effort to represent writers at DIC Enterprises in Burbank.

DIC, a unit of DIC Animation City Inc., is one of Hollywood’s busiest animation studios whose shows include “ALF” and “Slimer! & the Real Ghostbusters.” It was targeted for the first organizing effort by the Animation Writers of America, or AWA, which was formed a year ago.

The AWA claims more than 100 members, or about half the active cartoon writers in Hollywood, and had hoped that election of the union at DIC would lead to increased wages and benefits for the writers, nearly all of whom are free-lancers.

But last month, the National Labor Relations Board in Washington ruled against the AWA’s bid, even though 30 DIC writers already had voted to decide whether they wanted the union. The agency, in agreeing with DIC, ruled that the DIC writers are independent contractors who are not entitled to consider union representation--as could employees on DIC’s payroll.

Greg Payne, a DIC lawyer, said: “We were happy that the NLRB sided with our view of the law. Our free-lance animation writers are independent contractors under the law, and accordingly we did not have an obligation to bargain collectively with them.”

There is confusion within the union as to whether the AWA can appeal the NLRB’s decision or use the courts in an attempt to get it overturned. Julius Reich, a Los Angeles lawyer who has handled the AWA’s case, did not return telephone calls requesting comment.

Has Heavy Debt Load

But the AWA’s unionizing effort comes at a difficult time in the cartoon business. Competition to get shows on the air is fierce, and the studios are under pressure to keep expenses low. In recent years, some studios have shifted much of their labor-intensive production work to studios in the Far East, where costs are lower.

Cost pressures are particularly intense at DIC, because the 7-year-old company has to repay debt that was taken on two years ago when a group led by DIC President Andy Heyward bought the company. The debt totaled $70 million a year ago; its current level was not immediately available.

AWA President Sheryl M. Scarborough said the NLRB’s “decision took us by surprise; we didn’t anticipate this.” She said the union’s members felt “stricken” by the ruling, particularly because a regional officer of the NLRB had ruled in the AWA’s favor last November.

The board’s Los Angeles director, Roger Goubeaux, had agreed with the AWA’s premise that DIC controls much of how the writers’ work is done, therefore the writers are effectively employees of DIC and entitled to union representation. Goubeaux also ordered an election to see if the DIC writers wanted the union.

Writers who had written two or more scripts for DIC during the past year, about 30 people, then voted on whether they wanted the AWA to represent them.

The AWA believes that it won the election easily, based on conversations with the writers, said Mark Evanier, an AWA-backer who writes for the “Garfield & Friends” cartoon show, among others. But before the tally was unsealed, DIC appealed the matter to the full board of the NLRB in Washington, which overturned the regional decision.

“Directors aren’t reversed often, but being reversed is not an abnormal, highly unusual occurrence,” said Sidney Rosen, assistant to Goubeaux.

Pay Varies Widely

Regardless, Evanier termed the reversal “a fluke” and said “it’s a decision that’s at such odds with established legal practice that we can’t believe it will stand.”

Cartoon writers can earn from a few thousand dollars a year to more than $100,000, depending on the number of shows that they work on and other factors. A script for a typical 30-minute cartoon show runs about 40 to 60 pages, for which studios typically pay from $3,000 to $6,000.

The writers normally do not get residual payments when cartoons that they write are rebroadcast, as do many live-action TV writers who are union members. The AWA is seeking residuals for its writers, and also wants tougher rules spelling out how work is to be credited.

In its petition to the NLRB for an election at DIC, the union argued that because the DIC writers take direction for their scripts from DIC, they are effectively employees.

But the full NLRB board disagreed, saying in its decision that the writers were in effect independent contractors. “The writer creates the story idea, the premise, the outline and the script,” the agency stated in its decision. “The writer determines where and when to work and owns the equipment used.” The agency also noted that DIC “does not require the writers to work for it exclusively.”

“Although the employer does provide some direction, that limited control is insufficient to warrant a finding that the writers are employees” of DIC, the agency stated.

Attempts Failed

Another union, the Motion Picture Screen Cartoonists Union Local 839 in North Hollywood, represents a broad group of animation workers at such major animation houses as Walt Disney and Hanna-Barbera. But cartoon writers who helped establish the AWA had complained that the Cartoonists Union has focused more on production workers than writers.

Local 839 tried to organize workers at DIC in 1984 and last year, but failed in both attempts.

What will the AWA do now? Evanier hinted that the union might try to organize workers at another animation company, but that nothing had been decided yet. He also said the AWA was researching whether an appeal of the NLRB’s decision is possible.

But Scarborough said she understood that “an appeal is not possible to us,” and added, “without having a clear appeal, it’s going to take something creative, and I don’t know what that is yet.”