Hollywood Directors Ratify Their Contract as Writers Continue to Strike
The vote by Hollywood writers has prevented the doomsday scenario of three major Hollywood unions striking simultaneously.
On Friday, 87 percent of unionized film and television directors voted in favor of a three-year deal with Hollywood studios.
The Directors Guild of America announced the results. It had 16,321 voters eligible to vote. They said that it was a record turnout, and that this contract included "gains in wages, global stream residuals, safety and diversity, and creative rights."
This ratification prevents the worst-case scenario of three major Hollywood trade unions striking at once. Over 11,000 screenwriters walked picket lines in the past eight weeks. This brought many productions to an abrupt halt. The Writers Guild of America and Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (which bargains for studios) have no scheduled talks. On May 1, the writers and studios were very far apart in their major concerns when they left the table.
Next Friday, the contract between studios, SAG-AFTRA and about 160,000 actors expires. On June 7, the alliance and actors' union started negotiating a contract. The progress of the negotiations is not clear; both sides have agreed to a blackout on media. Before negotiations began, the actors voted on whether to authorize a walkout. About 65,000 members voted, or 48 per cent of eligible voters. 98 percent supported a strike.
Lesli Glatter, president of the guild, stated that they did not bargain in a vacuum. We stand with writers, actors, and all crew in our fight to move forward our industry.
The director's priorities were similar to those of writers and actors, such as wages, residuals from streaming and artificial intelligence. Writers Guild officials had stated that studios were offering little more than "annual meetings" to discuss artificial intelligence and refused to negotiate over guardrails. The Directors Guild announced that it had received an 'historic agreement confirming A.I. The Directors Guild said it had received a 'groundbreaking agreement confirming that A.I. The duties of members cannot be replaced by generative A.I.
Some of the demands of writers are, however, more complex than those made by directors. Writers Guild leaders described the dispute as urgent, describing it as 'existential'. They also said that the studios were'seemingly determined to continue their efforts to destroy writing'.
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