A Canadian labour union has filed a complaint against Nitrogen Studios, the animation house behind Sausage Party for allegedly mistreating their animators and not paying them their dues. Local Unifor 2000, based in Vancouver, who represents around 1200 media workers, filed the complaint recently at British Columbia’s Employment Standards Branch.
Speaking to the Hollywood Reporter, a union representative said that many of the animators were afraid to file a complaint against a big organisation. “We are aware of serious allegations that Nitrogen did not pay some of its animators overtime, and we’ve formally asked the Employment Standards Branch to investigate. Many of these animators are too scared to come forward – that’s why we’ve filed the third party complaint,” said Jennifer Moreau, vice president of Local Unifor 2000.
Incidentally, none of Vancouver’s animation studios are currently unionized, the Unifor statement said. Most animators work on contract-basis, thus making many of the unpaid animators of the film hesitant to file a complaint fearing getting blacklisted within the animation community.
Thus far, the VFX branch of BECTU, the UK’s media and entertainment trade union has shown its support for Sausage Party’s artists, publishing an open letter to Nitrogen artists and management on Monday, encouraging VFX and animation artists around the globe to continue efforts towards unionization.
News of alleged mistreatment of Sausage Party‘s animators emerged two weeks ago in the comments section of Cartoon Brew’s website. The site had published an interview of the two directors of the film Greg Tiernan and Conrad Vernon. The comments section had anonymous users claiming to be animators in the film who were mistreated and worked several days unpaid. “Almost half the animation team was not credited. The team believed in this film and poured their hearts and souls into it. Despite this, more than half of it was not credited. You can see the full team on IMDB, which contains 83 people (and I am certain there are some missing). The film’s credits, however, contains 47,” wrote one user.
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Sausage Party was produced in Canada by Nitrogen Studios. The production company and the makers of the film are yet to comment on the issue, with many of the comments posted being discussed on Reddit.
The film was officially released on 12 August, with actors Seth Rogen, Kristen Wiig, Jonah Hill, Bill Hader, James Franco, Michael Cera, Danny McBride, and Paul Rudd lending their voice for the adult animation comedy. It was ranked Number 1 at the US Box Office with $222.9 million at the time of its release.
Feature Image Courtesy: SausagePartyMovie.com