Animators to Picket KCET for Using Foreign Work

Two hundred professional animators are expected to picket public television station KCET Channel 28 on Thursday to protest what they say is increasing use of foreign animators in programming by station parent Public Broadcasting System.

The Motion Picture Screen Cartoonists Local 839 IATSE, representing 2,100 feature and television animators, say that significant amounts of animation and cartoon work are being farmed out to animators living in foreign countries such as Canada and that PBS is contributing to the problem by securing deals with Canadian firms.

PBS is the animators’ first protest target. The union says it plans future protests targeting other networks. Canada has been heavily subsidizing its expanding film and television industry, and Americans who produce shows there get substantial tax breaks and benefit from lower-value currency and cheaper labor.

The cartoonists union singled out PBS for airing animated shows such as “Arthur,” co-produced by Montreal-based CINAR Corp. and Boston public TV station WGBH. They also cited another CINAR production, “Wimzie’s House.”

Union leaders also questioned a $40-million, multiyear deal PBS signed with Toronto-based Nelvana in July to produce six weekly children’s series.

“This is a company supported by American cash donations and American tax dollars,” said Steve Hewlett, a representative for the screen cartoonists union.

PBS Vice President for Communications Tom Epstein said the amount of PBS children’s programming produced in Canada is a “drop in the bucket compared to programming produced in Canada for other networks.”

Pickets are planned at KCET as well as PBS and the Corp. for Public Broadcasting from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.