Ratification

Not ours, but the Directors Guild of America.

Directors Guild Members Ratify New Contract With TV, Film Producers

The deal will run through 2017 and includes a 3 percent annual wage increase and a breakthrough in high-budget new media

Directors Guild of America members have approved a new three-year deal with TV and film producers, the guild said Wednesday.

The DGA said its membership has voted by an overwhelming margin — though the guild didn’t release specific figures– to ratify the new collective bargaining agreements between the DGA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP).

The new contract’s three-year term will take effect on July 1, 2014 and will run through June 30, 2017.

Gains include an annual three percent wage increase; increased residuals bases; improvements in basic cable; the establishment, for the first time, of minimum terms and conditions for high-budget new media made for subscription video on demand; the establishment of a formal diversity program at the TV studios. ...

The Directors Guild seldom strikes. In fact, in recent years it has never struck except for 15-minute job action a couple of decades ago. But the DGA has leverage and savvy, with experienced negotiators who generally achieve a satisfactory deal.

The significance of this deal is that we have, at long last, broken out of the 2% bump-ups of the last few years and returned to the broad, sunlight uplands of 3% increases, which will (likely) become the new normal in the Land of Pattern Bargaining. There is also the prospect of establishing wage minimums for some higher-end internet production. As an IA rep said to me last week:

The studios and conglomerates are making more money, and the DGA was able to get some of the increasing wealth. ...

Anyway, that's what it looks like to me. There's been a rising tide, and the boats of labor are enjoying a bit of lift.