DGA Board Approves New Contract With Producers; 2.5% Wage Increase For The 1st Year, 0.5% Pension Increase

DGA Board Approves New Contract With Producers; 2.5% Wage Increase For The 1st Year, 0.5% Pension Increase

Related: DGA, Producers Reach Tentative Deal On New Contract

As expected, the Directors Guild of America Board today rubber-stamped the new three-year deal its negotiating committee finalized with the Alliance of Motion Picture and TV Producers on Friday. With the board’s approval, the agreement now goes to the DGA’s 15,000 members for ratification to succeed the current Basic Agreement and the Freelance Live and Tape TV Agreement, which expire on June 30, 2014. No word yet on when that voting deadline will be but the DGA expect to announce a date once the voting packages go out. The board meeting started around 9 AM today at the DGA HQ on Sunset. 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. 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. 

Traditionally the first of the Guilds to enter into negotiations and wrap things up quickly and early to promote labor peace, the DGA started talks with AMPTP on November 4 this time round. Though everyone ended up their usual friendly selves in the end, the talks were a bit bumpy in the beginning, I’ve learned. “There was a lot of lecturing and frustration the first few days on both sides and then the last few days they got down to actually negotiating something,” a source close to the discussions told me. With the death of long time negotiations chair Gil Cates in late 2 011, Thomas Schlamme and Michael Apted headed up talks for the DGA with long term Guild National Executive Director Jay Roth this year. AMPTP president Carol Lombardini fronted things for the studios.

Related: NBCU Hires Labor Relations Topper Ahead Of Negotiations

With this contract agreement going out to DGA members, the other guilds are getting ready to follow to the table themselves with the producers. As usual, the first agreement out of the gate will serve as a template for both the WGA and the now merged SAG-AFTRA in their negotiations. The WGA announced its negotiating committee on November 13 with Captain Phillips scribe Billy Ray and Chip Johannessen as co-chairs and WGAW Exec Director and Chief Negotiator David Young. However, the WGA has not yet set a start date for talks. The Writers Guild master contract is up on May 1st. In its first contract with AMPTP s ince the 2012 merger, SAG-AFTRA is not expected to sit down with the Producers until early in the new year after holding a series of wages and working conditions meetings with members. SAG-AFTRA’s current contract expires on June 30, 2014, the same day as the DGA’s. MORE 

Related:
DGA, Networks Agree On News, Sports And Operations Contract
SAG-AFTRA Extends Corporate And Non-Broadcast Pacts

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