Last night, the Directors Guild and the studios reached a tentative deal, as we first reported. But is the pact as “truly historic” as DGA negotiations committee chair Jon Avnet claims? And how will the new agreement affect the ongoing Writers Guild strike, now in its second month, and the SAG-AFTRA negotiations, set to begin Wednesday?
What we know of the key DGA deal points: First, basic wages will increase by 5 percent in the initial year of the three-year contract, followed by 4 percent and 3.5 percent increases. The guild calls those bumps “groundbreaking,” but—unlike past increases—these don’t make up for hefty inflation in the past two years (7 percent and 6.5 percent) and don’t exceed current inflation, which is running at 5 percent per year. Past increases, typically 2.5 percent or 3 percent, exceeded inflation by about 1.5 percent. These don’t.
