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Back on December 6, 2007, Directors Guild Of America President Michael Apted, Negotiations Committee Chair Gil Cates, and National Executive Director Jay D. Roth received a letter from 300 of the joint WGA-DGA members asking them to refrain from entering negotiations. Supposedly the DGA is going to announce on Thursday a start date for its negotiations. This letter sure makes it sound as if they expect to wrap up the talks by the end of January. (My understanding is that the DGA’s hired gun, uber-attorney Kenny Ziffren, has put together a New Media proposal that has significant — and what the agents are telling me, potentially positive –consequences for the other guilds.) Here’s the text:
Dear Member,
We didn’t want to let too much time go by before we answered your letter. We want you to know this response comes from our heartfelt understanding of the difficult times we are all in together.The DGA Negotiations Committee had its fourth meeting yesterday and we discussed your letter. We mention this so you will understand that this response reflects the very open discussion we had with your fellow Guild members.
To begin with, we understand the importance of new media and its potential impact on all our futures — and on those who follow us. DGA has spent close to 18 months developing research, meeting with outside experts, and talking to our members about these issues. They have been discussed by the Board and the Negotiations Committee for well over a year.
We understand well the importance of protecting our members. We will not rest until our members get a fair and equitable deal for the work they create in both old and new media. Since its founding, the Guild has consistently fought hard for that goal. For more than 70 years we have managed, often without fanfare, to negotiate good deals for all of us and we are proud of the strength of our Basic Agreement. We have no intention of letting our members down or betraying the rights of the directors who went before us. There is a reason that few in the industry ever accuse the DGA or its members of being pushovers. We’ve never been that and we don’t plan to start now.
This issue is not between the DGA and the WGA. To make that the fight only strengthens the other side. But sharing a goal is not the same as sharing tactics and strategy. And our differing views of the best way to achieve our goals may lead us to act differently. Traditionally our negotiations start early and usually are done by January. This has been our pattern for the past 20 years for a very simple reason: We believe — and our experience shows — that this is the most effective way to negotiate the best deal. The WGA has made a different decision on how to handle their negotiations. Out of respect for them, we have done what you asked for in your letter — we have refrained from commencing our own negotiations. And, at the same time we have refrained from commenting publicly on our thoughts about the direction of their proposals and the progress of their negotiations.
But the reality is that WGA and the AMPTP have been meeting since July — and, despite a strike that has put tens of thousands of people out of work, they seem nowhere near reaching a deal. Each passing day, more people are unemployed. We are getting calls from members who are worried about their economic livelihood and their families. We’re sure you feel the same concern for yourselves and the people who work for you.
Because so much time has gone by without any resolution, we find ourselves faced with some hard questions. Is a fresh perspective — and additional muscle — needed to get the job done? Is it our turn to sit across the table from the AMPTP? What we know is that we cannot abdicate our responsibility to our members by putting their fate in the hands of another union whose tactics and strategy we have not been able to influence. Our members expect the Guild to fight for them when things get tough. We promised all of you we would do that in our most recent membership letter. We believe this is the essence of responsible unionism, which is the least you and all our members have a right to expect from us.
Sincerely,
Michael Apted
DGA PresidentGil Cates
Chair, DGA Negotiations CommitteeJay D. Roth
DGA National Executive Director
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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Also, different unions have different needs. If the DGA can get something good for their own people that’s somehow and unfortunately NOT good for the others, well then… strike on.
The Writers Guild of America, my union, has my vote to strike as long as necessary to get the deal they feel is best for us. If that’s six months, then it’s six months. If it’s five years, then it’s five years. I can always find other work. so you shills and naysayers and doommongers and Gavin Palones of the wrold can portend the end of all things in writerdome until I Love Lucy reruns cease to air indefinitely. I don’t care. We will fight the good fight until the end. You all underestimate our resolve.
The DGA doesn’t OWE the WGA anything. They OWE their membership the best representation possible. The WGA owes their membership the same.
As an outsider I can see the validity for most of what the WGA is asking for. However you lose my support every time you try to wield your power to force others to join you in your cause.
If you want the public’s support in the long run, let your positions stand on their own merit and forgo the heavy-handed tactics trying to coerce others to sacrifice on your behalf.
Occasional Showrunner put it well…they’ll play good cop. Great. I hope so. Someone needs to be charming. BTLs will only support us so long, and if you monitor these responses you can already sense a sea change as people not in the WGA look far past the holidays before there’s any hope of a return to normalcy. Of course, after the 88 strike, normalcy never did return for the networks…
I recall getting Written By magazines months ago in which virtually all the content was tales of the 88 strike, and what struck me as propaganda leading up to this strike. Maybe it was chest thumping, sending a message of solidarity as a negotiation tactic. Or maybe it really was meant to be informative. But at the time, I was pretty pissed that it was being treated as a foregone conclusion we would walk.
Make no mistake, I think our requests are just and fair. But I also think we have painted ourselves into a corner of bitter words, and coming out of that corner now without appearing to ‘lose’ is going to be one mean trick indeed. The more posturing and promises at rallies, the deeper and darker that corner gets. I have no doubt that personalities on both sides have led the march into a battle that saner heads, with luck, might be able to end.
So let it be the directors. Then they can take the much ballyhooed “a negotiation by” credit – and say they earned it.
If the WGA holds out to June what happens? Can someone explain? The actors go on strike with them and this goes until next year at this time?
You all are so quick to condemn the WGA negotiators, it’s embarrassing. The studios have stiff-armed the WGA, and we’ve taken a strike, for all of the guilds. The DGA now gets a chance to carve a better deal, because we’ve scared the hell out of the AMPTP, and we’ve shut network television down, the TCAs are cancelled, the upfronts are in jeopardy. For all of the DGA hubris, they have as lousy a deal on dvds as the rest of us. Yes, some of their A list guys negotiate better deals for themselves, so they don’t have to worry about minimums, but most DGA directors and ADs get the same lousy deal as writers.
If the DGA pulls a good deal out of our strike, fine. If they sell us out, along with their 1400 WGA/DGA members, and their many SAG members, they will neither have scripts to shoot, nor actors to direct.
Obviously, the AMPTP doesn’t think of th DGA as more competent neogiators, they’ve done everythig they can do to avoid negotiating with the wGA, and their licking their chops in anticipation of another sweetheart DGA deal. In the past the DGA has taken easy short term gain and given up on the big issues. If they do it again, they do it alone, to their eternal shame.
And to those of you who somehow think the studios have your interest at heart, and the WGA doesn’t … may I suggest you look at your pensions and health plans and residuals, and think about who won those gains.
If you think the DGA has ever made a big gain, in their entire history, you are delusional. The letter from the guild, to its own members, smacks of condescension. Let’s hope they deliver, instead of sell out.
WGA, on strike, and willing to stay on strike until we get the internet.
By the way, EXTREMELY DISINGENUOUS, for Apted, Roth et al to write, “What we know is that we cannot abdicate our responsibility to our members by putting their fate in the hands of another union whose tactics and strategy we have not been able to influence.”
The DGA has been invited into the process from the get go, and they’ve refused every offer. They even refuse to share their research with their fellow creative guilds.
Cutting self-serving deals that then obligates other guilds to go along with their pattern is what led to the lousy dvd deal. If you’re a DGA member, don’t believe your leadership for a second when they claim not to have had influence on another union’s tactics and strategy. They’ve chosen, as they so often have in their past, to collaborate with the studios, instead of their fellow guilds.
Good luck to them, maybe the strike has caused so much damage the AMPTP will cut a deal to get out from under, but don’t expect SAG and the WGA to forget this DGA/AMPTP collaboration. We know what it is, and this time, we aren’t obliged to play along.
The translation:
We always start negotiating early and are usually done by January – We’re going to do the same thing this time.
On new media we’ve done our homework and we know what WE want – We plan to make a deal on on new media that serves our members interest as WE see it. We’re not going to worry about issues that don’t affect our union.
Bottom line, they’re going to start negotiating. They have a number in mind and they’re going to try to get it, but they aren’t going to care if WGA likes the number they settle on or not, and they aren’t going to pay one moments attention to issues outside new media.
I don’t expect them to just roll over on the new media formula, but doesn’t sound like they’re going to revisit DVD, or push for anything beyond a continuation of status quo.
If the studios don’t decide to be true dicks they will be done in January, if the studios take the exact same position they’ve taken with WGA, there’s going to be big trouble. They’ll get a number, and it’s going to be a number no on likes – (except the mogals, but they’ll pretend they hate it too)
For what it’s worth, there you have it.
Ah, sure enough. Look, if the DGA gets a good deal, fantastic. If they get a bad deal, keep striking. I’m on your side and it would have been nice if they’d held off. But you aren’t entitled to having everyone on your side. You deserve that, but it’s not the same thing. Fight for yourselves. The fans are with you, and I think the DGA is too, despite this obviously being worded with “intentional sympathy”. But many, many, many of us just want to see this END. With a fair deal, of course, but still. And a lot of people have a lot more invested in it than I do. I just have my TV shows. Other people have their lives. So pray for a great deal. And if it doesn’t happen? Again, keep striking. We won’t be happy to have to be in it for the long haul. But we’ll be happy when you win, all other guilds aside.
My opinion: the moguls are counting on the DGA to take a less-than-perfect deal, so SAG won’t strike, shaming the WGA into accepting it. The moguls aren’t counting on what needs to be done – DGA, SAG and WGA holding the hard line, shutting everything down this summer if they don’t get anything less than a great deal. This may be naive, but it seems like the guilds have the power, ultimately, not the moguls. Each guild will get what they want if they just hold the line and not go back to work until they their deal.
in ’85, a good deal was negotiated for home video. (2.5% of 100%) in ’88, the DGA undercut that deal with a worse deal to get something IT needed. (2.5% of 20% of 100%) the AMPTP used this as “the standard” in the WGA negotiations – and we’ve been stuck with that lowly number ever since.
the DGA feels burned by what happened to them in cable back in ’01. don’t be surprised if they used their “research” to demand a BIGGER piece of the internet than the WGA is asking for. they are not stupid enough to lose more money – TV directors have already lost half their salaries when their episodes aren’t rerun but instead played on the web.
also, residuals for the DGA are divided among the DGA “team” – the director, AD’s and UPM’s. and they are not nearly as important as they are to writers.
their good deal is a good deal for the WGA. their bad deal is a continued strike for the WGA – and SAG.
Please remember that a deal is not a good deal unless it’s good for both sides. If the AMPTP suddenly realizes it gave the WGA the world on reality, then they’ll just stop producing reality. The DGA will go in there and say we like status quo. We’d like our residual structure to apply to new media as well as old media. We don’t want any more and we don’t want any less. And the AMPTP will agree. When you come in like gangbusters asking for the moon, you’ll get the cold shoulder every time.
DGALP, above in the comments says, “Add that to the average workday being 14 hours for me, versus 8-10 for a writer.”
Working as a writer is a 24 hour 7 days a week job. Writing involves thinking, researching, preparing, and then writing, editing, and rewriting. It’s a process that you clearly don’t understand, but that’s understandable.
The DGA will cave and “fold like pup tents” as Nikki wrote some weeks ago. Just like the AMPTP’s other shill organization, the IATSE.
If you have a problem working 14 hour+ days, take it up with your union, the labor board, the state of California, and the US Department of Labor and OSHA. I think it’s a serious safety issue that should be part of any labor contract, that any union truly interested in their membership would bring up. Sadly, it seems the DGA isn’t such a union.
If the negotiations resume, I would love to see them TELEVISED… or at least videotaped by an impartial third party. Just set up a camera in the room and aim it at the table. That way we don’t have to depend on heresay. Everyone will have to take responsibility for their actions: stupid or smart.
The issue with the DGA is that their interests are too divided to get a good deal for the other unions. This is not a criticism; they get the best deal they can for their union, which is made up mostly of people who are below the line and don’t get any residuals, while the members who are “directors” as we all know the term, usually have their own residual deals negotiated by their agent.
In other words, they don’t have the same incentives or needs or desires as the WGA or SAG. Most of their members have never had residuals, so a huge fight over new media residuals would be a waste of their time. That’s why people are negative about them making a deal because it may end up being a smoke screen that allows the AMPTP to claim victory when in reality the DGA has nothing to lose and if the WGA wins, pattern bargaining means their deal improves automatically anyway.
This is the first piece of correspondence/PR that I have read, relating to happenings in this strike, that makes me want to shout “Hallelujah! There’s a light at the end of the tunnel.”
Don’t get me wrong. I’m an actor and very supportive of the WGA. I still honk my horn in support of the picketers and hope the best for them. And how the AMPTP has treated the WGA makes me literally want to throw up. The ONLY thing I’ve enjoyed about this strike are the Speechless videos and the other related satire clips and amptp.com — to laugh at what has made this strike is sick … but necessary?
HOWEVER…
The amount of sludge that has been thrown in both directions between the AMPTP and the WGA (with SAG heaping on more) is enough to make you want to crawl into a hole, hibernate, and be told when to come out after a long winter’s rest (while your bills still get paid, mind you!). I think the AMPTP has been entirely unreasonable. And I also think the WGA asked for a strike. So how’s that for progress!
Anyway, back to the DGA’s letter — look at how this letter is worded. It is kind, yet direct. It does not demean, yet points to an exit which can likely help everyone. It fosters union and solution, not harsh justification and enemy fighting.
A new viewpoint should be something both the WGA and SAG need to look at — after all, what’s going on now isn’t getting us back to the bargaining table.
I encourage the DGA to move forward. They’ve been very patient. I believe the attorney they have hired is excellent and will do not only the DGA justice but will, in the end, be a godsend to other unions as well … as we look to the end of this horrific strike.
To DGALP and others,
You have just validated the WGA position. The writers are the only ones who is not under contract…everybody else is under their current contracts and look what happened.
The writers are the foundation and without them…YOU DON’T HAVE A JOB.
So if you think, that the DGA is going to settle this, I don’t think so…if the writers are left with that lousy deal the AMPTP offered.
It ain’t gonna happen…especially after that big fat contract Moonves got…it won’t happen…it just means a longer strike.
Maybe Apted should gather all the folks from his 7-Up films and create a super negotiating team. That guy that studied nuclear fusion seems pretty smart.
The DGA deal is not going to be a “good deal” for the WGA. It will either be a deal that forces writers to accept crap or it will be a deal which will force writers to continue to strike. They will not be taking terms that benefit writers in any way and the Conglomerates — as they should be known — will not be offering them anything that will be a saving-face move at assuaging the WGA.
Hope to be wrong.
I guess I don’t see the bid FU here. I see that the DGA has a way of negotiating that some WGA members and leaders don’t agree with. I see that the DGA feels that they have waited long enough with respect for the WGA negotiations and have decided to start theirs soon. I don’t see them as divisive however I do see WGA posters calling them names like “rollovers” and “weak” which could cause an existing rift to grow wider. They have as much right to begin to make a deal as WGA has their right to strike.
Let’s get on with it!
Bill
BTL
Not a shill
Ready for a solution
Apted’s letter sounds reasonable to me. By mid to late January the congloms will be feeling more pressure and it’s obvious that the DGA –whom have been in the room with the WGA NegCom, as I understand it– will have so many eyes on them if they rolled there would be an uprising. I could care less where a good deal comes from. Jurisdiction issues off the table (or pending a reality/animation writer-walk-out, to show solidarity) things will get done for the WGA too.
–non-union writer not writing.
I really can’t imagine how any of you are trying to spin this as anything but what it really is:
A HUGE FU to the WGA.
It says two things:
First, it says, PUBLICLY that the DGA thinks the WGA’s leadership aren’t capable of hammering out a deal. To suggest otherwise is to lie to yourself.
Second, it makes it very clear that they believe they can force closure to this labor strife themselves. Read it again, it basically comes out and says “we aren’t going to let the WGA hold our members hostage if we can make a deal of our own that will force an end to the strike”. And it seems clear they believe they can do just that.
Sounds like the beginning of the death rattle to me.
To DGALP:
You know why you make less than us? Because we “created” your job. Without us, you have no job. You’re a hired hand, my friend. Anyone can learn to do your job. Anyone can be a UPM/LINE PRODUCER. And I’m sorry about your long 14 hr days. Our days are 24 hrs, 7 days a week. We spend months, sometimes years working on something so you can have a job. And good luck with your negotiations. We’re all holding our breath in anticipation to see this wonderful deal you’re going to get.
“My understanding is that the DGA’s hired gun, uber-attorney Kenny Ziffren, has put together a New Media proposal that has significant and what the agents are telling me, potentially positive consequences for the other guilds.” –Nikki Finke
A calm, rational and strategically sound statement by the DGA to lay the groundwork for their negotiations. This should come as no surprise as they have Ken Ziffren, a professional dealmaker, who is crafting their proposals and guiding their strategy…kinda makes you wonder what it would be like if the WGA had hired one of those, doesn’t it?
Hey, bring it on. Either the DGA negotiates a good contract, and we pattern-bargain, or they don’t, and we stick it out until we get what we want.