DGA Says “Studios Are Not Yet Prepared To Address Our Key Issues” & Won’t Be First Guild To The Bargaining Table This Year

deadline.com:

DGA leaders told their members tonight that the DGA won’t be the first guild at the bargaining table with the AMPTP this year because “the studios are not yet prepared to address our key issues.” It’s a break from recent tradition: the DGA has gone before the WGA and SAG-AFTRA in each of the last three bargaining cycles.

The last time the DGA didn’t go first was in 2010, when pre-merger SAG and AFTRA came to the bargaining table first. The last time the WGA went first, back in 2007, a 100-day writers’ strike ensued.

The DGA’s current film and TV contract expires June 30 – on the same day as SAG-AFTRA’s and two months after the May 1 expiration of the WGA’s contract.

In a message to their members, guild leaders said that “after careful consideration,” the guild’s 80-person Negotiating Committee “unanimously determined today that it is not in our interest to begin negotiations well in advance of our contract expiration.