A Frank Q&A with Negotiations Committee Chair Gil Cates (December 2007)

1. Why did we make the decision at this time to move forward with Negotiations in the New Year?

We decided to move forward because it is in the best interest of our members and because our Negotiations Committee is prepared and ready.

The DGA has a history of starting negotiations early, and we would typically have concluded our negotiations by this point in the cycle. By this time in both 2001 and 2004 we had already completed our negotiations and had signed deals. The DGA has refrained from initiating our usual process out of respect for our sister Guild, the WGA.

There’s a school of thought that believes the only way to get the best deal is to negotiate right up to the last minute. We don’t agree with this approach. We believe that the studios are willing to pay a premium on an early deal. So, why not use that leverage? That’s not to say that we’ll settle for less than the very best for our members - we would never flinch from negotiating to the bitter end. But ultimately, the test is the quality of the deal - not when you make it.

And the current impasse has cost the jobs of tens of thousands of entertainment-industry workers, including many of our own members, and more will lose their jobs every day the strike continues. Given the urgency, it is both irresponsible and unrealistic to assume that time is the only thing that is needed for the situation to be resolved. We believe that our fresh perspective — and additional muscle — is the best way to get the job done.

2. How do you respond to those who say we are not supporting the WGA and should refrain from negotiating?

I disagree with the premise and so did the WGA in the statement they sent out in response to our announcement. They said that “The DGA has to do what is best for its membership and we will do what’s best for ours”.

We have supported the WGA by refraining from entering negotiations for months when we would normally have done so. But like the writers, we have a responsibility to our members. And like the writers, we deserve a chance to negotiate with the AMPTP to try to make a deal.

And we know we can’t please everyone. We know that some of our members have different opinions on what we should be doing – and we welcome all of them. Democracy is a wonderful thing in a membership organization.

3. Where will we focus in the weeks ahead?

Our focus will and should be on getting the best possible deal for our members. We have spent the last eighteen months at significant expense on the best consultants to do extensive research, which we have shared with our 50-plus member Negotiations Committee, National Board, and Category Councils.

We think success will be a matter of knowing more about issues than management does. When we do go into these negotiations, I promise you, we will know more about the issues, have more substantive information, and have spent more time and energy on these issues than management has. As soon as you go into the battle, if you aren’t smarter than your opponent, quite frankly, you are screwed.

4. What will our take be regarding New Media?

Members should know we understand the importance of new media and its potential impact on all our futures and on those who follow us.

As new media develops, there will be a major upswing in the need for original content. I think the central question we must focus on is: Who is going to create that content and who will have control over it. The word for that in negotiation-speak is, jurisdiction.

We will seek to establish jurisdiction and we will fight for appropriate compensation for the reuse of our new and already existing work on all media platforms. We will seek to ensure that both new methods of distribution and new “made for” content have built-in mechanisms for member compensation and safeguards for our members’ creative rights.

Nobody knows exactly what the future will hold and how much revenue might be extracted from these new sources. But we can rely on the following core principles, as we have for 70 years: to protect our compensation for use and reuse of our work, flexible and appropriate agreements for each medium, and establishing early jurisdiction so our members can work in the new mediums as they develop.

I want to reassure our members that no matter what the future holds, our Guild will not be left behind in this revolution. We will be here and present and doing the thoughtful, creative work we have always done.

5. Is it true that Residuals are less important to our members than to the members of other Guilds - as has been claimed in the press?

This has got to be the most ridiculous statement I have seen in the press this year. These self-proclaimed “experts” have decided that just because a significant portion of our membership is made up of ADs, UPMs, Associate Directors and Stage Managers, they have no interest in residuals.

Well let me tell you exactly how much residuals matter to every single DGA member. Over the last ten years, residuals to our below-the-line members and to the Basic Pension Plan amount to more than 1/2 billion dollars.

n addition, in 2006, over $44 million in residual benefits were paid directly into the DGA Basic Pension Plan by the companies. This represents 71% of all the funds contributed into our Basic Pension Plan benefiting all members. In other words, even if a member never works on a project that generates residuals in their entire career, when that member retires and become eligible to receive a pension, they will share in the benefits created by the residuals that go into the Basic Pension Plan every year. I’m not sure how anybody can say that residuals don’t matter to our members – they do.

By the way, not every guild shares the benefits of residuals between its members in the way that we do through our Pension Plan. It’s the Robin Hood effect… share the wealth between those of our members who do earn residuals and those who don’t.

6. Any other thoughts you want to share with the membership?

We’ve been preparing for this negotiation for more than a year, but in a way, we’ve been preparing for it our entire careers — that’s what being a director or a member of the director’s team is all about. Our job is to take dreams and figure out how to turn them into reality — not by being unrealistic, not by being unreasonable, but by being tough. This is how movies get made. This is how to get a good deal at the bargaining table. I look forward to getting started.