In breaking news, the DGA has ended its five-day negotiations with the producers and, pending ratification, we have a new contract. The DGA is a role model for how an entertainment union should handle negotiations - others should learn from them, but they don't. They just love the drama and the posturing too much. The DGA normally starts its negotiations eight months ahead of the contract expiration - other unions wait until the last possible minute, which is, to my mind, ignorant and insufferable. This time, out of respect to the WGA, they didn't begin them last October as they wanted to - they waited until the most recent talks broke down, with both sides refusing to go back to the table. And, five days later, we have a contract - with excellent pay and residual increases, jusrisdiction over Internet programming for the first time in history, and the groundwork and more than decent residuals package for the new electronic media distribution.
I think it's pretty obvious that the handwriting is on the wall for the WGA, and I'm pretty certain they will follow suit and settle for similar terms. If they don't, it's not going to be pretty, but this has happened before and them following suit has usually been the result.
