Directors Guild of America Vote to Ratify New Deal as WGA Strike Continues

While the Writer’s Guild of America strike remains ongoing, with no signs of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers returning to the negotiating table, their sister guild, the Directors Guild of America, has voted to ratify their new agreement. The new DGA agreement includes an increase in international streaming residuals, an increase in scale minimums to account for inflation, and protections for human jobs against ArtificialIntelligence replacement (including mandated biannual meetings about new developments in this area). 41% of the DGA’s membership, which totals over 16k members, voted on the deal, with 87% voting in favor and 13% opposed.

“I’m proud to report that DGA members have joined together to ratify a new contract that will allow every Director, Assistant Director, Unit Production Manager, Associate Director and Stage Manager to share in the success of what we create,” DGA president Lesli Linka Glatter said in a statement (via THR). “Our new contract secures gains on wages, global streaming residuals, safety, diversity and creative rights that build for the future and impact every category of member in our Guild.”

“I also want to acknowledge that the DGA didn’t bargain in a vacuum. We stand united with writers, actors and all crew members in our shared fight to move our industry forward,” Glatter continued. “We support the actors who are in negotiations and the writers who remain on strike, and we will stand with the IA and Teamsters when they negotiate their agreement next year. We won’t be satisfied until we all have fair contracts that reward us for our creative work – we must create a vibrant, sustainable industry that fairly values us all.”

Despite what appears to be overwhelming support for the new deal, there were still many dissenting voices that made their stance known. Doctor Strange and The Black Phone director Scott Derrickson was one of these, previously tweeting that he would be among the membership that voted “No” on the deal. 

“I love the DGA — they have protected me during some of the most difficult situations of my career. However, I am voting NO on the ratification of this contract because the time to go after transparency in domestic streaming data is now,” Derrickson tweeted. “It is ludicrous that we don’t get to know how many people are actually viewing our work — or how much revenue it generates. This information is consequential to our lives, yet the NegCom (per their own admission) did not even attempt to get us honest answers in this area — a decision that does DGA members a grave disservice.”

The new contract’s three-year term will take effect on July 1, 2023 and will run through June 30, 2026.