Kickstart Entertainment workers join Canadian animation guild

The Vancouver company becomes the third animation studio to join IATSE Local 938.

A nimation workers at Kickstart Entertainment in Vancouver are the latest to join Canadian animation guild IATSE Local 938.

An application for union certification was filed with the B.C. Labour Relations Board in December 2023 and the results were released on Jan. 3, making it the third animation studio in Canada to join the union, according to a news release.

Workers at Kickstart join their counterparts at WildBrain Animation Studio in Vancouver, which employs more than 800 workers and unionized in fall 2023, and Titmouse Vancouver, which joined IATSE Local 938 in 2021. They will now begin the process of working with IATSE and bargaining their first collective agreement.

Kickstart Entertainment did not provide comment as of press time.

“Bargaining strong collective agreements is what we do best,” said John Lewis, international VP and director of Canadian affairs at IATSE, in a statement. “We look forward to a fulsome bargaining process with this company.”

In a statement to Playback sister publication Kidscreen in September 2023, IATSE international representative William Gladman said the impact of the recent strikes, stagnant wages and a higher cost of living was pushing animation workers in Vancouver to unionize.

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