DGA-AMPTP

Now with Add-Ons.

They've reached, apparently, a new contract.

After just 18 days of negotiations, the Directors Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers announced tonight that they have reached a tentative agreement on a new three-year TV/theatrical contract. The deal will be reviewed Saturday at a special meeting of the DGA’s National Board; if the board approves it, the deal will be sent to the full membership for ratification soon afterward. ...

Steve Kaplan and I were lunching with a long-time union rep and organizer. He related that his writer-producer girlfriend has griped that the WGA strike of 2007-2008 ended up being "for nothing."

I said, "No. Wasn't for nothing. The WGA got New Media, which so far hasn't been worth a hell of a lot, but they got it. But the real winners then were the members of the DGA, which negotiated a better deal than the Writers, even though it was the WGA that went on strike. The Directors did better with the contract's fine print."

The DGA goes into contract talks knowing where it wants to go, and is skilled at formulating a plan to get there. I have no idea what the agreement just negotiated actually is. Nobody does. But it will likely suit the DGA's goals and purposes. And the contract will be the template for the contract negotiations to follow.

Add On: Some of the contract details:

... The deal, which took just two and a half weeks to reach, sees wage increases of 2.5% the first year and 3% for the second and third years of the agreement. It also sees a 0.5% raise up to 16% overall to the Pension Plan, though the DGA can divert that increase to wages if it chooses. Residuals will also increase 2.5% the first year and go up 3% in the second and third years except for network primetime which will go up 2% for each year of the new deal. Taking just over three weeks last time, the DGA/AMPTP negotiations in 2010 for the current contract saw a 2% yearly wage and residual raise and a 1.5% rise in health and pension contributions to 15.5% overall. ...

We'll soon get to see how this ripples across other contracts up for negotiation.