For many, the lure of working in animation is the ability to spend the work day creating characters, bringing stories to life and entertaining an audience. But even the most creative and exciting career has its mundane side – getting hired, negotiating a fair wage, health benefits and saving for retirement.

And for anyone who wants to work at a major studio, The Animation Guild (TAG) will play a role in managing those aspects of the job.

So what is The Animation Guild?

Kevin Koch, President of TAG and a mentor at Animation Mentor, says it is, at its core, a labor organization. "The name 'guild' sometimes confuses people, because I think there are organizations that call themselves guilds that aren't labor organizations," he says. "We're a guild in the same sense that the Screen Actors Guild and Writers Guild and the Directors Guild are guilds. They are all entertainment labor unions."

Specifically, The Animation Guild is Local 839 of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), one of the largest unions in the world. Koch says IATSE covers mostly everyone in the entertainment business who is not an actor, director or writer. TAG is one of IATSE's largest locals, with about 3,000 active members. The recent growth of the animation industry has helped membership reach this peak, from earlier totals of between 1,200 and 2,000 members, Koch says.

The guild operates under federal law governing collective bargaining, serving members who work for companies with which the guild has negotiated contracts. The guild has contracts with most major animation studios in Los Angeles, meaning animators who want to work for the companies like Disney, Cartoon Network, Sony Pictures Animation, DreamWorks or Film Roman will be working union jobs.

Animators who are hired at a union-covered company are required to join the union after 30 days. The employer receives benefits administered by the Motion Picture Industry Health and Pension Plan. New members pay an initiation fee based on their salary and then pay dues on a quarterly schedule.

The guild protects its members by negotiating contracts to set wage minimums for specific jobs, providing sick time, vacation policies and other benefits. The guild will also represent members in cases of unfair treatment and in cases when members believe that their studio is violating the contract.

"People often put up with bad situations at work and they're afraid to contact the union because they're afraid they'll get in trouble, when actually that's often the way to de-escalate the situation and clarify their rights," says Koch.

Koch says the guild is there to serve its members and is far removed from the stereotypes some may have of labor organizations. "People often have views kind of tempered by either watching shows like The Sopranos or having read anti-union kind of stuff that the union controls jobs and helps decide who can be promoted or that the union protects current members even if they're inefficient or not pulling their weight," he says. "They often have the idea that the union is essentially a business itself and out to serve itself when really, all the union is, is the membership."

Beyond workplace issues, TAG tries to foster and strengthen the animation community. A key contribution of TAG is the American Animation Institute, an educational program which began in 1980 as a way to help current animators maintain their skills and encourage new people to enter the field. TAG members have first dibs on signing up for the institute's classes, but remaining spots are open to anyone in the community.

TAG also acquires grant money that subsidizes re-training for guild members at local schools like Studio Arts. Grants are issued to the guild by the Contract Services Administration Training Trust Fund, which is funded by contributions from guild-covered employers. The grants reimburse qualified guild members two-thirds of the cost of the program. Animation Mentor was included in the grants for 2009, but an error in the application caused the 2010 grants to be denied. Koch says the guild is making up for the error by funding the grants that five guild members would have received for their Animation Mentor course work. The guild will apply again for the grants for next year.

Megan Kreiner was one of the students affected by the error. A final layout artist on DreamWorks Animation's current release, How to Train Your Dragon, Kreiner used the grants to take Classes 1 and 2 at Animation Mentor in 2009 before finding out about the funds problem for 2010. She says she plans to take Class 3, after which she will take some time off for the birth of her baby, and then plans to return to both Animation Mentor and DreamWorks.

Virtually all of TAG's members work at typical animation studios. For TAG to represent a studio, a majority of animators working at a company must sign confidential representation cards indicating that they want the guild to represent them in collective bargaining.

"It's not up to the guild to say we think 'Studio X' should be covered and we're going to go talk to them about it," says Koch. "It has to start from the bottom up. It's against federal law for unions to do top-down organizing."

Koch says the most recent example of a studio contacting TAG for membership was at Film Roman, when animators grew tired of changes to their benefits. "A good contract was signed pretty quickly," Koch says.

The advantages of TAG's benefits are consistent throughout the industry among member studios. Guild members can move from one covered studio to another, retaining the same medical insurance and paying into the same retirement plan. Their work at any covered studio counts toward vesting in their pension and health care benefits.

Guild members are free to work for non-union shops as they please, Koch says. When members are not working for union studios, they can go on "honorable withdrawal," which means they are still members of the guild but don't have to pay their dues.

Other services provided by the guild include an annual wage survey, which keeps members informed of current salaries for specific jobs in the industry. The guild's contract also covers severance pay for members who are laid off.

When members are looking for work, the guild does what it can to help. "The guild will put out an email blast to about 1,500 members who are on the email list," says Koch.

The guild's staff is small, with only five employees. Among them is business manager Steve Hulett, who spends at least half his time in the field talking to members on the job, answering questions from members, and writing the popular TAG blog at http://animationguildblog.blogspot.com.

TAG recently moved to a new building in Burbank and is in the process of hiring a full-time organizer who will also help with membership activities. Koch says dues haven't been raised in decades and he, as president, and the guild's 16 executive board members, all serve as volunteers. Meetings are held every two months.

"This is my eighth year as president, so I'm going to bow out soon and be letting somebody else step into that role," says Koch. "I encourage people when they get that union job to not just float along but get involved and ask questions."

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Thomas J. Mclean is a freelance writer in Los Angeles who covers the entertainment industry with a particular focus on animation, visual effects and comic books. His blog, Bags and Boards, can be found at http://bagsandboards.blogspot.com/.