With the recent changing of the guard at the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), there’s trepidation in some circles over the prospects for reaching an agreement on a new commercials contract next year. Hopefully those fears are unfounded and a fair contract can be attained without the angst and acrimony of 2000 when a six-month walkout arguably further fueled runaway spot production to foreign countries.
Perhaps some solace can be found in the nature of the Directors Guild of America (DGA) spot contract, which was recently ratified by Guild members (see story, p. 1). Indeed the give-and-take of collective bargaining can bear fruit. As reported in SHOOT last month, the negotiating teams for both sides felt they made significant gains in the new four-year pact, which runs through Oct. 31, 2009.
DGA president Michael Apted noted that the agreement contains substantial increases in health plan contributions and in minimum rates for directors and assistant directors.
According to DGA Eastern executive director Russ Hollander, the deal “will benefit both sides of the bargaining table–it means more work for the companies and more jobs for our members.” He stated that the Guild’s negotiating committee “was intent on finding creative solutions that benefit our members, while simultaneously enabling production companies to compete in the global marketplace.”
AICP president/CEO Matt Miller cited several areas of flexibility in the contract. These include under certain circumstances a U.S. production house not being required to transport a first assistant director to a foreign country where lensing is taking place. Miller related that saving assistant director first class travel and per diem on a U.K. shoot, for example, helps to make an American shop more competitive in bidding for the work against a U.K. production company.
Additionally, the AICP/DGA agreement has a low-budget provision, and gives “good faith consideration” to AICP production house requests to provide production services on U.S. shoots for non-signatory foreign production companies. This would apply only to spots that are being shown solely in foreign markets outside the U.S. and Canada.
The DGA has also agreed to make its longstanding assistant directors training program in New York more responsive to the commercialmaking community. There will be a newly placed emphasis, said Hollander, on training spot assistant directors.
Meanwhile, Hollander described DGA membership gains as substantive in terms of wage increases and increased pension and health contributions. The latter is essential given the state of healthcare.
“In many ways,” stated Miller, “our negotiations with the Guild reflect the close working relationship that commercial producers share with our directorial partners every day. Thanks to that relationship, and the Guild’s understanding of the unique nature of commercial production, we were able to make headway on issues that will allow our member companies to better compete in the global marketplace while continuing to afford members of the Guild important protections in the workplace.”
(For a more detailed rundown of the new DGA commercials contract, see SHOOT‘s previous coverage of the negotiated agreement–10/7, p. 1.)
