The Directors Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers have reached a tentative agreement on a new three-year contract. This contract comes on the 33rd day of the Writers Guild strike.
In an official statement, the DGA stated that the new deal “achieves major breakthroughs in addressing the international growth of the entertainment industry and makes significant gains across key economic and creative rights while reaffirming the critical role of DGA directors and their teams.” The pact includes increases to wages and benefits earned by directors, AI protections, global streaming residuals, and more. (Full benefits can be seen on Deadline).
This proposal comes in just four days before a bargaining meeting between SAG-AFTRA and AMPTP and two days before the final deadline (Monday, June 5th at 5:00 pm) for SAG-AFTRA members to vote for or against strike authorization.
Members of the Writers Guild of America seem to disprove of the agreements reached between the DGA and the AMPTP with some folks citing the lack of reparations the writers will receive in comparison to the directors. In addition to this, studios have been declining discussions with the WGA in hopes of conjuring similar results to the 2008 WGA Strike. During those times, the DGA made a massive deal with the AMPTP, and many writers felt that the deal is what ceased the strike after 100 days of protesting and negotiating by the WGA.
“I wasn’t around in ‘08, but this feels like that from what I’ve heard,” one writer commented. “The WGA takes a stand, the DGA reaps the rewards.”
A veteran showrunner analyzed the overall effect of the DGA pact, the SAG-AFTRA deadline, and more recent events on the WGA strikes and on the general state of union groups in the industry:
“The two guilds have a lot of different issues this year, that’s a fact, but no one can say this deal doesn’t change things, the momentum. The outcome of that SAG-AFTRA vote is the next big hurdle. If they vote against a strike … well, I don’t know, it’ll be hard.”
Formal negotiations between the DGA Negotiations Committee and the AMPTP began on May 10.
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