Earlier this morning, we reported that the Directors Guild of America (DGA) had reached a tentative “historic” agreement for its 19,000 members with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). Now moving into the second month of its own labor dispute with the studios and streamers, striking writers have now responded.
They’re not happy, calling out the timing of the announcement – midnight.
The three-year tentative agreement sees the DGA receive pay and benefits increases, gains in global streaming residuals and protections against the use of AI, something that is of extreme importance in the WGA negotiations but the AMPTP is unwilling to discuss. The DGA’s current contract expires June 30. SAG-AFTRA currently has members voting to authorize a strike. Its contract also ends June 30.
“Thrilled that the DGA was able to use the power of the WGA’s labor action to secure a deal that works for them,” Amy Berg (Jack Ryan, Warrior Nun) wrote early Sunday. “We proposed a number of these terms … before the AMPTP cut off negotiations in order to hand a deal to the DGA. They will continue to not speak to us, offering them next to SAG. But we have needs in areas they don’t, and will secure a deal that works for us. This isn’t it. Also, keep in mind that SAG is due to announce the results of their strike authorization vote and getting this done quickly is an attempt to undermine its impact. Between that and the strike, the DGA was situated well to get something that works for them. For them, not us.”
REELated:
Scott Collette tweeted, “How bad must the DGA negotiating committee be that the WGA strike gifted them all the leverage in the world and they only made demands that the AMPTP were comfortable agreeing to.”
“Now that the AMPTP has given the DGA pay for prep time I hope the WGA goes back to the table and asks why we spend six months or more of our year WRITING pitches for free. Tony Gilroy has straight up said Andor came out of a written document he wrote for free!” wrote Aaron Stewart.
The WGA has consistently stressed unity with other guilds in its ongoing strike against the AMPTP over such issues as streaming transparency, wage increases and AI safeguards. It would seem the DGA did not get the memo.
