By Mike Reynolds
It appears that members of the Directors Guild of America (DGA) will not be picking up protest signs. After a meeting last Saturday with negotiators for the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), there was news that a tentative agreement had been reached on a new contract amicable to both parties.
Back in May the DGA had suggested to its membership that the upcoming negotiations would be difficult, but the relatively speedy talks suggest they have been anything but with the resolution coming in in less than a month and finalized last Saturday.
While the agreement has to be presented to the full membership, DGA negotiators seemed positive the terms would be approved. The proposed new deal was presented on Tuesday at a DGA National Board meeting. The current contract runs out on June 30.
Late Tuesday evening the DGA’s National Board of Directors announced their “unanimous” approval of the tentative agreement reached by the guild’s negotiating committee and the contract with the AMPTP will be sent out for a ratification vote by guild members later this week.
Lesli Linka Glatter, DGA president, stated, “Our industry is rapidly changing and expanding, and this agreement is what we need to adapt to those changes, break new ground, and protect the DGA’s 19,000 directors and directorial team members today, and in the years to come. Along with the rest of the DGA National Board, I am proud to enthusiastically recommend this tentative agreement to our members for ratification. Together, we will secure the future we deserve.”
She added, “We set out to negotiate a contract that would build for the future. This is a significant deal with gains for every director, assistant director, unit production manager, associate director, and stage manager.”
Chair of the DGA’s Negotiations Committee, Jon Avnet, stated that, in the new three-year deal, “We made advances on wages, streaming residuals, safety, creative rights and diversity, as well as securing essential protections for our members on new key issues like artificial intelligence — ensuring DGA members will not be replaced by technological advances. This deal would not have been possible without the unity of the DGA membership, and we are grateful for the strong support of union members across the industry.” He also averred it was “a truly historic deal”
Linka Glatter, added that, “As each new technology brings about major change, this deal ensures that each of the DGA’s 19,000 members can share in the success we all create together.”
National Executive Director of the DGA Russell Hollander suggested, “Every member of our union can be proud of the gains we’ve achieved across the board,” adding, “Significantly, and for the first time ever, global SVoD residuals will be paid based on the number of international subscribers. The result is a 76 percent increase in foreign residuals for the biggest services. As our industry becomes increasingly global, these gains are imperative to ensuring our members are valued and compensated for their incredible work.”
Among the long list of new terms are gains in wages and benefits; protection of the health and pension plans; new safety and diversity, equity and inclusion measures; compensation for the months of “soft prep” for feature directors; an increase in global streaming residuals on dramatic content made for SVoD; creative rights protections, an improvement in data transparency from studios and streamers; changes in working conditions and residuals for scripted dramatic projects made for free-to-the-consumer streaming services, such as Freevee, Tubi and Roku — unit production managers and assistant directors will now share in the residuals; an agreement that AI cannot replace the duties performed by members; expanded safety training programs for both directors and their teams, along with a ban of live ammunition on set.
In a statement, the DGA stressed their support for the rest of the industry guilds and union members: “We continue to support the actors who are entering negotiations tomorrow and the writers who remain on strike.”
Leave A Comment